The Holiday Spirit

Dear Editor,

In the Editor's Note of the March issue of your international edition (February domestic edition), the writer notes with distress that people in Taiwan no longer place as much importance as they used to on Chinese New Year or the customs associated with it. The writer points admiringly to the West, which she feels is doing a better job of preserving the spirit of Christmas. I don't think this is necessarily the case. Christmas has actually become very commercialized here, especially in the big cities. Santa Claus and the department stores team up to hoodwink innocent, trusting little children, and the original religious meaning of Christmas has been replaced by a superficial "eat, drink, and be merry" approach to the holidays. This has happened because industrialized society is pulling away from its agrarian roots. We Chinese need to relax a bit during the Chinese New Year holidays, take a break from our busy lives, create a bit of nostalgic atmosphere for ourselves and our children, and show a little gratitude to the people of rural farming communities for their contributions to our country. If we could manage that, there is no doubt that we would be able to preserve the traditional spirit of Chinese New Year. The editor's worries are well founded, but the point is that we Chinese must rely on ourselves to solve the problem.

Headline Humor Raises Hackles

Dear Editor,

In the February 2000 edition of the Spanish edition of Sinorama, the headline on page 40 reads, in Chinese, "Clouds Build Over Chung Hsing Bills Case, Variables Build in Presidential Election." But the Spanish reads: "James Soong Gets a Message: Show Us the Money!" This is completely unfaithful to the original, and appears to be subjective criticism of one candidate in an effort to help the ruling KMT in the election, thereby violating the principle of civil service neutrality. I trust this is not what your agency wants, and suggest that you double-check in the future. If the Spanish is translated from the English, this is even worse, because everyone understands English, and errors like this should not get by. If it was intentional, that would be very inappropriate.

Liu Chia-feng

ROC representative in Mexico

(tr. by Phil Newell)

Editor's reply: The Spanish title on page 40 was indeed translated from the English. While the text of our articles is faithfully translated from the Chinese, English translators sometimes use titles of their own invention in hopes of making stories more eye-catching to readers. The title you noted was simply intended to be humorous (it is a reference to a well-known movie hook line). There was never any intention of helping or hurting any particular candidates. We regret that any political motive could be inferred, and will be more careful in the future to avoid such misunderstandings.