Dear Editor,
Sinorama is a high-quality magazine with rich content, an attractive layout and excellent printing. Not only does every issue contain worthwhile and entertaining articles, but the information it contains is also of value both for writing and teaching. I found the article "Taiwan Literature: The Next Export Success Story?" in the January 2000 overseas edition particularly rewarding.
At present, most translations of Chinese literature seen in the West are fiction, especially novels. But essays and poetry are also areas of great achievement, and we should be making an effort to introduce them to an international readership. Your article mentions that An Anthology of Contemporary Chinese Literature: Taiwan, 1949-1974, edited by Professor Chi Pang-yuan and others, contains many poems and essays, and is still regarded as important today in academic circles. In these few short lines I couldn't begin to say how useful and interesting I find Sinorama. I just hope that you can devote more space to reporting literature, to let both Chinese and non-Chinese alike better know the excellence of literature from Taiwan.
Economy the key to cross-strait progress
Jos. Kao, USA (tr. by Robert Taylor)
Dear Editor,
In April 1973 I came to the US to study biochemistry. I have never had the chance to return to Taiwan, and most of the time I rarely get to speak or read Chinese. All this time, Sinorama has been my only way of keeping in touch with Chinese culture. The differences between Chinese and Western culture are very great. Two main themes of Western culture are democracy and economics. It is a thoroughly economy-oriented culture. Whether in mayoral, gubernatorial or presidential elections, the main issues are always economic. Anyone with the ability to make the economy prosper, increase people's incomes and reduce unemployment has a chance to be elected.
But looking at Taiwan and mainland China, they represent a politics-oriented culture. Administrative leaders, whether elected or appointed, rarely have economic expertise. In Taiwan, unemployment is growing and the economy is in the doldrums, and in the past mainland China was even worse, shutting itself off from the outside world for many years. This is one aspect of Chinese traditional culture that compares badly with Western culture. I hope our national leaders can pay more attention to economic development, and allow the cross-strait issue to be interpreted from an economic perspective, for the benefit of all our people.
