Dear Editor:
Having lived overseas for many years, I have seen many Chinese-language publications but few that are up to standard. Some time back I came across Sinorama, published by the Government Information Office in the Executive Yuan, and found it quite impressive, whether in terms of contents, layout, pictures, printing or paper, with a look that is up to the standards of an international publication. I took out a long-term subscription and view it as a regular form of intellectual sustenance.
After reading a number of issues, I discovered some errors and places that need correction in the text and pictures. Your magazine is an important publication in telling non-Chinese about our country, distributed around the globe, as I understand, in several foreign languages. As a reader who cares, I would like to mention a few of these places for your reference in the hope that you can correct them and maintain your fine reputation.
1. In the "Letters to the Editor" section on page 1, volume 16, issue 11 [overseas edition], Cornell University was misspelled as Cormell.
2. In the article on Belize on page 130, issue 12, volume 16, the map of Central America left out E1 Salvador, which was so much in the news for a time. If it appeared this way in the Spanish-language edition distributed in Central America, it must have had quite a negative impact.
3. On page 1, issue 1, volume 17, the name of the captain in the German navy was spelled two different ways. I wonder which is correct.
Tang Tso-hu New Jersey
Editor's Reply: Thank you for your remarks. The correct spelling of theGerman naval captain is Hartmut H.F. Spieker.
Dear Editor:
I am a student from Taiwan studying in the United States. Last week I went to a Chinese-American dentist's office to have my teeth checked,and as soon as I stepped in I saw a copy of Sinorama, with Lin Huai-minonthe cover, featuring the story "I Still Have a Dream." I asked the dentist where it had come from, and he said he had been a subscriber for many years. "They keep on improving. They used to translate only a part ofit into English, but readers asked for more and now they translate the whole thing." Then he offered to tear out the subscription form in the back so that I could subscribe too. I asked him why the copies in the waiting room all seemed to be old issues, and he replied matter-of-factly,"I only have time to read them at home in the evening, and I can't bear to put any out until I've finished!"
Your article on karaoke in the March issue was very timely. There was airport in the Chinese-language news here too about people training for karaoke in Taiwan. The karaoke fad has spread in the U.S. from the West Coast to the East. In Boston, for instance, it's used as a gimmick to attract customers at Korean restaurants as well as Chinese and Japanese ones. The word karaoke, by the way, is Japanese: kara means "empty" and oke comes from the English word "orchestra."
Lin Yu-chi United States
Dear Editor:
I haven't received the April issue of Sinorama, and I think it probably was lost. It feels a little strange not to read it for a month.
I personally am fond of the "Potpourri" section. In last month's issue, for instance, the article "I'd Like to Live a Few Years More" made me think about a lot of things. I shared it with some friends but they couldn't relate to it, which was disappointing. I also liked the article "A Time for Window-Shopping," which gave us a glimpse of life in Taipei in the past. For me and many other overseas Chinese living here, Taipei is such a distant place that it's hard to sense what it must be like, how it's changed from quiet and tranquility to bustling crowds and prosperity. Life here is a matter of constantly doing our utmost to realize ourselves and raise our oppressed status. It's just like that passage in "Chinese? Chinese!" by Lo Lan.
Even though I didn't receive the April issue, I heard that the song of the month was "Ties in the Next Life" by Liu Teh-hua. Come to think of it, now that I'm writing to you, I might as well take part in the "Song of the Month" cassette drawing--maybe I'll get lucky and win one!
Lin Jen-huang Malaysia
Correction: The caption on page 116 of our March 1992 overseas issue contained a misstatement. The person who helped raise funds for China in the wake of the September 18 incident was not Li Wen-pin himself but rather his father.
