Xeroxing music was a nightmare. Self-service a la Kinko's had not yet been discovered except near embassy-land on the eastern side of the city. Although Jiang Xiaoyun, who works as a research librarian at the Conservatory, assures me that the library had recently acquired a brand new xeroxing machine, the sample copies I saw resembled documents which had been run over by truck tires. I deduced that either these were made using the old machines or the person on duty had no idea how to adjust the exposure on the new machine.

After encountering much indifference at several privately-owned printing shops, I decided that inefficiency at close proximity was more manageable than inefficiency across town and opted for the local printing shop. I had to return multiple times to ensure all my copies were made in the correct order, no lines of music had been accidentally amputated, and to search for Jiang Wenye's score of his Taiwanese Dances which they had carelessly lost. I managed to get all my copies made and returned before I the end of my stay, but only after many frustrating encounters, heart palpitations and, no doubt, some reduction in my lifespan.