I think I will abandon the reading of *The Importance of Living* by Lin Yutang. I share the basic attitude expressed in the book, but that results in a very shallow reading experience. So basicall I started to randomly open the book and read a few pages if they were translations of older Chinese texts. I am interested in their views on flower arrangements, tea ceremony, gardening, etc. But it wasn’t too gripping. I will return to *The Making of Modern Japan* by Marius B. Jansen. Very interesting. Austerity and minimalism are aesthetic values, but they were also an effect of the extreme poverty most samurai lived in during the Tokugawa era. I’m enjoying this book very much.
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