Amateur Photographer Magazine Published in UK Prints Photos By Chinese Teacher.

1990-04-17:
Hello Tang,
Two of your photographs were printed in the 'Amateur Photographer' magazine last week which I found very interesting. They were far more impressive than any of my own, perhaps because most Chinese have that artistic talent, lacking in so many westerners! You have only to look at, and refer to, all the beautiful paintings which come out of China, to win that argument.
A friend named Chung and I visited China in 1987, the year of my sixtieth birthday, and between us we took about 2,000 photographs in about three weeks. It was a guided tour, all rush, rush, rush, so the photographs, taken when time was so limited, were more of a 'photographic notebook' than any serious attempt to capture the true spirit of the Chinese people. There were no masterpieces, but the photographs are a record of many happy memories. *****

*****
I have many Chinese friends in the UK and in China itself, and in fact I shall be going to Beijing in August of this year to visit some friends there. Because you asked for some copies of photographic magazines in your letter, that was published in the 'Amateur Photographer', I thought I would bring some copies of different photographic magazines, and post them to you from Beijing. I usually have old copies of many different photographic magazines that I no longer use, so you are welcome to them. The postage from the UK is too expensive to make it worthwhile posting the magazines to you, so it would be much cheaper to do so from Beijing.

I am sending this letter to the 'Amateur Photographer' and asking them to forward it to you. They will not release your address to me without first finding out whether it is your wish that they do so. I hope the letter will reach you in time to let me know whether these photographic magazines would be of any use to you, so that I can bring them to Beijing for posting. I know from experience that times for letters from China to reach the UK, varies greatly; 8 days from Guilin;10 days from Nanning, sometimes only 3 days from Beijing, and that is by airmail. If the post comes overland it can sometimes take 4 to 5 weeks.

I know you live in Hunnan Province of China and that you are a student teacher. Do you 'teach' students, or are you 'learning to teach'? The english language never seems to be very clear. You will know Guilin and the beautiful scenery there, a place we visited in 1987, but only for two days; we were very sad to leave so quickly. Some day I will return for a much longer visit and perhaps take some photographs of the wonderful scenery, of mountains and rivers, which I will never forget from my first visit.

I hope you will continue to enjoy taking photographs, and will be successful in getting many of them published. You certainly have a lot of talent.
With best wishes,
Dan

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