信箱(英文)

Worries from an African Boy 非洲男孩儿的困惑I appreciate you taking the time to read my letter. I was so glad to find Women of China magazine in a bookstore. The layout and the pictures of beautiful women attracted me, so I bought the June issue. The article History Will Never Forget     

读者来信

Dear Women of China, I enjoyed reading about James Chau in your April issue. I used to live in Beijing and I watched CCTV for my daily news fix. I＇ve always wondered why Chau liked to lean towards the side like that. I＇m glad that was mentioned in your article, and that be answered the question so thoroughly and honestly. Thank you for clearing up that question for     

Chinese New Year's Prints Endure

BEFORE coming to China in 1986, I had spent months collecting all sorts of information on China and asking Chinese friends of mine about their everyday lives. So I felt fairly well informed before my trip. But when I landed in China, I was a bit disappointed. Everyihing looked so Western here. Of course, in Germany you never see a man kill a hen in the street for lunch or cabbages stacked on the sidewalk to dry in the sun. But overall, China's streets resemble those in big cities all over the world. Looking at Western-style clothing, vehicles and modern buildings, somehow I missed the Chinese flair. I knew about China's modernization drive, but I was obviously     

Marshal's Wealth Left to His Children

FOR commemoration, for passion and for belief-I wrote this article to dedicate to my father Zhu De's 110th anniversary of his birth. I did not meet my father until I was 14. I had no memory of him in my mind. The first time I saw him was in Yan'an at the end of 1940, where my memory of him became clear. But because our time apart was so much longer than the period of our reunion, the memory actually only became a dim     

Flawers of the Sun

I was not a flower lover when I was a little girl. Instead, I spent my days mixing with the "mischievous" boys in the neighborhood; my favorite toys were wooden sticks which I imagined to be guns. I guess part of the reason for my unusual behavior goes to the influence of my father serving in the army and China was undergoing the Cultural Revolution. Then all things beyond bare necessity were categorized as bourgeois extravagance. How could a prole-tariat offspring come to love flowers, which     

My Nepalese Friends

NEPAL and China are good neighbors. In the 1980s many Chinese technicians went to Nepal to help build roads and other projects. As an interpreter with a Chinese construction cooperative, I worked there from 1993 to 1994. During my stay in Nepal, I met many different Nepalese women who impressed me deeply. My landlady Sumiyala, was the first Nepalese woman to come into my life. She was over 40 years old, a healthy and good-humored housewife. Whenever Ⅰ had time, I liked to chat with her and gradually we became friends. I remember my landlady was busy in and out of her house all day long— cleaning, cooking and taking care of her grandchildren and her parents-in-laws.     

来信

Dear Women of China,Happy New Year.I hope you are doing well.I recently saw your great magazine for the first time,in Beijing,when I went to the US Embassy.It is really well done.It was a great read while I waited.I am a writer and entrepreneur involved in fashion,education,and sustainability,and I wan ted to reach out and get more information about your publication.I have worked most of my life involved with many women's organizations,and I have recently begun working with a company doing some research on women in business.In addition,I have had the honor of interviewing many amazing women and men from around the world.I look forward to hearing back from you.Thank you so much.     

Editorial Mailbox

Attending the Fourth World Conference on Women held in China in 1995 was indeed a wonderful experience. The lingering excitement of the event continues to bubble over each and every time I recount the excitement of the trip to my students and friends. Most questions, however, are not about the Forum itself, but instead about China. Everyone is amazed to hear that people living in a communist country are living a much better life than ever before. In fact, very few people from my country have visited     

Notes on a Trip to Japan

"WHAT'S your impression of Japan? How has it advanced?" I was repeatedly asked the same questions by my friends and colleagues after I returned to Beijing. As a neighboring country of China and a world economic superpower, Japan is still a remote and unfamiliar place to most Chinese. In November of 1996, I was invited by the Japanese government to participate in the Asian-Pacific Journalist's Seminar on Women and Media. My one-week schedule     

Mom's Hut,A Restful Harbor

I have become very fond of returning to my own parents' home, and to my mother's side, ever since I was 30. When I am tired of life in the noisy city and being a mother and wife, returning to my mother's side makes me feel like a daughter again. There I am free from worries and can enjoy the tender care and love of my mother. In the morning, lying in bed lazily in the most comfortable posture, I do not need to urge my son to get up for school. The clatter Mother makes when she goes to the kitchen to prepare breakfast is the     

My Ping-Pong Family

WHEN I was born, my father was 40 and my mother was 36. Father is a man of few words and an introverted nature. He belongs to that type of people who are very tough and strong-willed; he has worked hard all his life. Mother, on the other hand, is extroverted and eager to excel. My personality is a combination of both of their characters. Father loves playing ping-pong ardently. He used to be a top player of the Henan provincial team and won the men's singles championship in a contest of five provinces in central and southern China. Mother, a worker at the No. 4 National Textile Mill in Zhengzhou, also loved to play ping-pong when she was young. It was because of the sport that she and Father were brought together and got married. When the Henan     

Affection for Beijing's Hutongs

I have been living in Beijing for nearly 20 years. I often ride my bike to and from the office. I love to avoid crowded roads and ride through the hutongs, or small lanes. My feelings of bustle and agitation can disappear when I ride in the lanes—so simple and unsophisticated, quiet and familiar. In my spare time, I     

Orphans Teach Businesswoman How to Love

IT was already New Year's Eve, so could not postpone paying my debt any longer. In the morning two of my colleagues in the public relations department and I made the long journey to the Beijing Children's Welfare Home to fulfill my annual charitable contribution. Later that afternoon we hurried to Xiaoguan to visit our department secretary who had just given birth to a son. These two visits on the same day     

The Call for Peace

THE war left a deep impression on people. I was still a child then and what I remember most was fleeing from the war and the air raids. During the eight years of the war I went with my mother to Guangzhou, Hong Kong, Macao Guangxi, Yunnan and Guizhou. We fled to literally every part of the country in the south. Now and then I was able to go to school, but I never stayed in any one of them long before we had to flee again. By the time I was supposed to graduate from middle school I had been to five different middle schools, but because of the constant changes of schools I never obtained any graduation certificate. In my research work I see some materials on the war, and     

Beijingers and Shanghainese

I was born and brought up in Shanghai.Later, to follow my husband, I moved toBeijing. From the start I was impressed bythe courteous way the residents of theformer imperial city addressed people andtheir pleasing speech patterns, with curlingtongue to add an "er" pronunciation to manyof the Chinese words - so different from theflatter speech of Shanghai. Over the years inBeijing, I learned how to mimic the accentand found that the people of the two citiesare interestingly different in many ways. I was accustomed to sharing taxis when Iarrived, for in Shanghai, if you are going inthe same direction, strangers double up forcheaper fares. In the capital, however, it ishard to find someone willing to get in ifsomeone is already inside. One weekend,     

At the Window of the Old House

ONE winter, my mother told me that the old house had to be sold. Among us children I was the one who most bitterly opposed the scheme to sell because of reasons that were hard to explain. But my mother's words seemed to be irrefutable: "Nobody has been living in the house for years and we should sell it before it collapses. You have always cherished your feelings for the house, so go there and stay for one last time." Our family's old house was a two-     

My Family Loves Fish Dishes

HAVING meals together could be regarded as one of the most important aspects of family life. My husband, my senior high school-age daughter and I have meals together only in the evenings, so we pay close attention to what we eat. We usually talk about what we will have for supper in the mornings. As a housewife, I want to cook a supper that is rich and appetizing, so my husband and daughter will enjoy it more.     

Pasta, Shanxi Style Hand-pulled Noodles Loved by Tourists and Residents Alike

I had my most delicious meal with noodles in a small village along the Yellow River. It was on a March day a decade ago, when I had just moved to Shanxi Province. I was out in the field as a reporter, and was exhausted and starving after traveling more than 50 kilometers on foot and by bus. A middle-aged man, whom I did not know, was standing in front of his dugout cave, the traditional dwelling of the Shanxi people." He called to me and invited me to have a meal in his home. Upon entering the cave, I was asked to sit on a kang, a brick bed, while the man's wife busied herself with cooking my meal. In no time a huge bowl of youpomian, noodles with Chinese prickly ash oil, was on the table in front of me. My nostrils were immediately filled with the strong and delicious smell of chili and prickly ash.     

My Motherland, Myself

AMONG contemporaries of NewChina, I am but an ordinary woman. Ihave experienced hardships and so has themotherland. On November 26, 1949 I was born,when the country was just liberated.Immersed in the golden sunshine of thenew era, I spent my childhood joyfullyand was admitted into a key high schoolin Beijing. Just as I was crowing overmy bright academic future the CulturalRevolution broke out and classes weresuspended in my school. Looking at thelarge posters all over the campus,hearing the shouting, "It is right torebel," I felt confused and hoped that