Dear Editor:
Hello! I came across a copy of Sinorama by chance and was deeply impressed by its fine layout, rich variety and healthy, edifying contents. The article about Chinese-American university chancellor Chang-lin Tien, in particular, gave me a feeling of pride and elation. His drive and determination to make something of himself represent the go-ahead spirit of the entire Chinese people. Your magazine also shows us the clear achievements that Taiwan has made in recent years in economics, education and technology. Taiwan's economic progress has been witnessed by Chinese on both sides of the Taiwan Strait, and its development experience has received the attention of the mainland and of all Asia.
Most of the articles in your magazine are quite well written, but some of them are a bit too highbrow--they lack the popular touch. "Black and White Unite?" and "A Fierce Dragon Can Cross the River After All," for instance, were quite specialized, of little interest to the average reader and took up a lot of space. And some articles contain too much theory. What readers overseas care about is how Taiwan is actually doing in various areas and not technical discussions and dissertations.
I hope I can continue to read your magazine. I am a technical information specialist in a disease research and information center in Szechwan Province. Would it be possible to publish Sinorama or similar publications in Hong Kong? It's really not easy to get hold of your magazine here. We will certainly treasure it. And thanks for your hard work!
A Reader in Szechwan Province
Editor's Reply: Thank you for your letter. We agree completely with your views--we could report more about the current situation on Taiwan--but as a magazine, unlike a newspaper, we hope the articles in Sinorama are more in greater depth, which may entail some specialization, as you put it.
Our writers have come up against that before. The French sinologist Kristofer Schipper once told one of them, "Other reporters always ask me whether my wife understands Chinese or whether we speak French or Chinese at home," but his interview with Sinorama was a welcome change. And the British sinologist Glen Dudbridge wrote one of our writers saying, "I liked talking with you because your questions were focused entirely on my research." As a general-interest magazine, we don't exclude the possibility that readers may be interested in the family life of a French sinologist, but we emphasized sinological research in the articles because that was the thrust of our concern. Chinese culture is a major part of the world's heritage, and we were eager to learn about how it is received, understood and studied in the West.
For a similar reason, in addition to reporting on the current situation in Taiwan, our staff tries to read and study as much as it can on an issue, be it politics, economics, culture, science, technology or the environment, in order to point out the crux of the problem, look at future trends and so forth. Consider environmental protection, for instance. Everyone thinks they understand it, but if you went a step further and asked them why wild animals, which don't seem to have any connection with our daily lives, should be protected, there are probably very few who could give a cogent reply. And without a certain degree of understanding of ecology, it's very hard for people to achieve the ideals of environmental protection.
No matter what the topic, we will continue to pursue the goal of expressing difficult ideas in language easy to understand.
Dear Editor:
I am a resident of Malaysia who enjoys reading Sinorama a great deal. I was especially excited to read an article in this month's issue [the issue before last] on places in Malaysia that have preserved a coloring of Chinese culture. It should be noted, however, that the first syllable of Malacca is written with the character ma for "horse" and not that for "hemp," the same way as the first syllable of Malaysia.
I don't know whether Malacca is ordinarily written with the hemp character in Taiwan, but when you report about things in Malaysia I think it would be better to follow the local custom and "when in Malaysia, do as the Malaysians do." Otherwise people here will think it strange.
Chen Ming-hua Malaysia
