Dear Yuan,

These days general computer skills are a general requirement for professional staff. A lot of computer experts are self-taught. Having said that, we have some IT support here in Melbourne, although I normally don't ask them for any help throughout the entire year because you need to fill in a lot of request forms just to get them over to help.

I can understand the frustration of the lack of IT support in Fengshan. That is perhaps another reason why you'll need to rely on yourself. I remember a remark by a respected home-mate from Guilin, who used to be a very high-ranking official with Chiang Kai-Sek (Jiang Jieshi) in Taiwan, and who helped me a lot when I first arrived in Australia in 1987. She said to me: "Always bear in mind that you are the only person in the world that can help yourself. Don't count on others." This remark gave me a lot of strength and courage to go on to achieve what I have achieved so far. I think this would apply to you.

I'll try to find some books for you, good ones that you can read from time to time. These days there are a number of good books on the web, but we need to find that. Books are relatively affordable in China. In Australia, books are terribly expensive. A book will normally cost about 100 Australia dollars. So each time when I go back to China for fieldwork, I would buy some books and bring them back to Australia. If you need any particular books from China, I can ask Luo Jie of Uncle Li in Beijing (Little Uncle's classmate, who is also a good friend of mine) to get them for you. But I'll definitely try and find some book for you from Australia, too.

How is your laptop? Is it still working? I'll see if I could get hold of one for you when I go to Beijing in November.

Best wishes,

Uncle
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