Copy Reference WHEN a new journal makes its debut before the reading public, a few "opening remarks" are in order. This is a long-established tradition, and no editor can ignore it without running the risk of giving the reader a cause for complaint.
Anyone picking up a new magazine wants to know its intentions and purpose, just as he is curious to learn personal details about a new friend.
PEKING REVIEW, as the reader can see from its masthead, is a weekly magazine of Chinese news and views. Since the birth of the Chinese People's Republic, there has been a growing interest abroad both in what is happening in China and in the views of New China.
More and more people are becoming interested in China and they want to know more about the country and its people in the quickest possible way.
PEKING REVIEW, which is New China's first English-language weekly, will provide timely, accurate, first-hand information on economic, political and cultural developments in China and her relations with the rest of the world.
Each issue of the magazine will carry several articles and permanent features. There will be analytical and informative articles, giving facts and background on developments of general or current interest, while the regular departments will record the day-to-day goings-on in various fields. Round the Week will be a round-up of important domestic events. China and the World will report current developments in China's relations with other countries. Those who want to follow the trends of Chinese public opinion will find Chinese Press Opinion useful for their purpose. And What's On in Peking speaks for itself.
Full texts of important statements of China's policy will be printed in a documentary section, when circumstances warrant. We shall also publish essential statistics, graphs and charts, cartoons and some illustrations.
PEKING REVIEW will come to the reader by the quickest means of transportation. This new, faster medium of information, we hope, will promote better understanding and friendship between China and the other countries of the world.
Our first issue rolls off the press when China is forging ahead with her Second Five-Year Plan. During the past eight years People's China has accomplished a great deal, but much more remains to be done. To free so vast a country, with one-fourth the world's population, from the tyrannical rule of foreign and domestic reactionaries was no easy task. To build socialism in such a country presents still more difficult and complex problems. Successes have been achieved, but there have also been difficulties and errors. Our magazine will chronicle all this in its full perspective and true context.
The success of a magazine has quite a lot to do with its readers. This is particularly true of a new journal. We need and welcome the criticisms and suggestions of our readers and we hope that you will write to us.