Tuesday, 1 September

Since Zhongxiong and Jeannie left for London four days ago, Kitty took Zhongxiong’s place to help Qian at the Hong Kong Restaurant. It would do her a great deal of good as she will be so occupied that her mind will not be so occupied with fantastic flying thoughts. But I have to be at the restaurant too from half past eleven in the morning to three in the afternoon, and from half past six to half past eleven in the evening, So I am now like a naughty boy, kept in every day, and forced to read and write for over eight hours. Three years ago, I had discontinued my diary because my conditions were such that I was not in the mood to write at all. Now, since I am forced to be in this little room in the restaurant with nothing better to do, I have resolved to write again.

It is a very hot day. The temperature is up to 90°F. In America, it is much worse. In certain places, it is 107°F and scores have died in the heat wave. What a hard world! Business is not good today.

Huang Kaiyin (黃凱音) asked my advice as to whether he should go to Taipei, as his quarterly remittances from Indo-China (for his work as a correspondent for a Singapore newspaper) have become very irregular owing to the new regulations promulgated by the French Government. I advised him to stay in Paris for a few more months to finish his thesis at the Sorbonne before leaving. He agreed, and said that his French wife would find work here to help him. He has a very good wife.