" Among all my relatives there was not one to whom I could look for inspiration, to who I could turn for advice. The only ones I felt indebted to were my my father and mother, who I saw literally go without food to allow me to study after primary school. Even the money for a notebook was a worry, and my first long trousers - new corduroy ones, good for summer and winter, indispensable for secondary school - were bough my installments. Every month we would go to the shop to hand over the amount due. It is hard to imagine today, but the pleasure of putting on those trousers in I have never felt again with any other garment, not even those made to measure for me in Peking by Mao's own tailor. "
― Tiziano Terzani , A Fortune-Teller Told Me: Earthbound Travels in the Far East