Letters to the Editor

It's a pleasure to read Sinorama every month.

Your reports on every aspect of the culture of Taiwan, Republic of China, and the life of its people, which is hard to come by here in Japan, is most interesting. I sometimes exchange opinions with my pen pal in Taiwan about articles in your magazine.

Your new feature this year, "Song of the Month," is a fine idea, but unfortunately the musical notation is by number instead of by notes and clefs. It wasn't until I went to Taiwan this spring that I found out that most of the songbooks on Taiwan use number notation, which is hard for us foreigners to understand and makes it impossible for us to sing along with you. As a result, I hope that you will be able to use no clef notation in the future. This way, more foreigners will be able to sing Chinese hit songs with you.

Wishing you the best in the future,

Tasaka Yasuhiro

Yokohama, Japan

The reason "Song of the Month" uses notation by number is because we believe that more people here and abroad can understand that system than can read music. The principle is simple: no matter what the key, "1" stands for "do," "2" stands for "re," and so on. It's easy; give it a try.

Correction:

In the "China/Korea Statistical Chart" on p.11 of last issue, "billion" should read "million."

Also, the author of the right-hand cartoon on p. 41 of the same issue should be credited to Lin Heng-li.

Our apologies to our readers and to Mr. Lin.

The Editors