AFTER formal establishment of diplomatic relations between China and the United States in January 1979,cooperation and exchanges between the two countries in various fields rapidly expanded, and North America became an increasingly significant aspect of China's politics, economy, and culture. The China Reconstructs leadership frequently discussed targeted coverage and reportage -- no easy task for the English edition whose readership covered almost every part of the world, from Australia and New Zealand in Oceania, to the English-speaking countries in Africa. A North American edition nonetheless became something of an obsession within the China Reconstructs leadership.
In the early 1980s, representatives of China Reconstructs visited the United States as part of an international communications delegation, at the invitation of the US-China People's Friendship Association. Wherever they went they were keenly aware of a large potential readership, eager to learn about China, but who had limited access to such information. The clear solution to everyone concerned was to launch a North American edition, and to send staff from China there to run the magazine, amidst its readers. In January 1983, the North American edition, based on the English edition, came into being. It was edited in Beijing and printed in Los Angeles, and a representative office was established in San Francisco. Apart from the general-interest reports that also appeared in the English edition, each issue included special reports oriented towards North American readers, and four additional color pages mainly devoted to bilateral exchanges between China and North America.
Back in Beijing, the leadership of China Reconstructs came to an editorial decision as regards the new edition: that all special reports were to be written directly in English, rather than firstly in Chinese and then translated into English. This decision actually reinstated China Reconstructs' original practice when it was a solely English magazine, and all its reports were written directly in English. As the magazine expanded, and editions in other languages emerged, a Chinese editorial department was established to serve as a story supply center, where various editions could obtain articles in Chinese and translate them into the relevant language. In this process, however, editors of foreign language editions often found difficulty in reconciling the original Chinese versions with their foreign equivalents. To avoid this problem, a North American edition editorial office was set up, comprising one reporter from the editorial department who had served on the original English reporting team, and two Chinese reporters with English majors -- among the first group of university graduates after restoration of the university entrance examination system in 1977. This compact team was the youngest and liveliest of all the various departments of China Reconstructs. They would dart around energetically between visiting foreign delegations and personages, and report on-going exchange activities between China and North America, as well as other topics of special interest to North American readers.
The North American edition office in San Francisco also played an active role in many aspects. In March 1985, it cooperated with China Books and Periodicals Inc., China Reconstructs' distributor in the United States, in conducting a readers' survey, and obtained large amounts of reliable data on its readers, invaluable for editorial orientation and expansion of distribution channels. To increase circulation, the San Francisco office participated in the annual meeting of the American Booksellers Association and jointly set up a booth with China Books and Periodicals, to promote China Reconstructs.
This office was also active in Sino-US cultural exchanges, where it promoted China Reconstructs and general understanding of China. Around the late 1980s, it participated in two important Chinese cultural events in the United States: The Monkey -- an exhibition held in San Francisco of children's paintings by Wang Yani, and The Son of Heaven, a three-month itinerant exhibition around the States of imperial-use artifacts and relics. The office produced a special issue for each of the two events and made issues of China Reconstructs available at these exhibitions to help introduce it, and consequently China, to the American people.
Since its establishment, the North American edition has made use of every opportunity to communicate with the American people and make them more familiar with China. The annual meeting of Asian Studies is a main venue and opportunity for the United States to promote exchanges with the people of Asia, and invites scholars from China, as well as from other parts of Asia every year. The North American edition representatives are very much in evidence on such occasions, presenting the magazine to participants while exchanging ideas with them.
At the same time, the office maintains regular communications with local institutions, such as the University of San Francisco International Students Center, where the office is regularly invited to talk about China; and the weekly gathering of the US-China People's Friendship Association, when discussions are held with American participants on topics as large as Sino/US trade relations, or as small as Chinese cooking.
Organizing readers' tours was another major means by which the San Francisco office could extend its American readership. Apart from regular tour programs, readers' tours also visited the China Reconstructs office in Beijing, and the homes of its staff members. Participants actually experienced in Beijing and all of China the friendliness of the people and affinity with the country they had always imagined and cherished. They shared their experience of China with others through their letters to the North American edition, and many made return trips to China and Beijing, bringing still more readers on these tour groups.
Through promotion and exchange activities such as these, the North American edition won a lot of friends and readers, whose requests and suggestions they made every effort to fulfill. Some readers would call to make specific inquiries about articles they had read in the magazine, such as those on acupuncture, and how to get in touch with certain Chinese medicine doctors, or where to buy books recommended in the magazine. The San Francisco office helped them answer such questions, and also helped locate the doctors or buy books on behalf of their readers.
Over the years, the North American edition has operated amidst its readers and worked hard to get close to them. Without it all these happy achievements would have been merely a pipe dream.
(china.org.cn January 18, 2002)
