He recalls the first time he was approached to do an article. It was a request to translate transcripts of oral history recounted by Hu Shih into Chinese for publication. He felt that translating his own work one more time was simply too boring and presented not the slightest creative challenge, so he absolutely refused.
記得最初傳記向他邀稿時要他把「胡適口述自傳」譯成中文發表，但他覺得把自己的文章再翻譯一次實在太無趣，毫無創作的喜悅可言，於是斷然拒絕。