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50th Anniversary Reception
Special> 50th Anniversary of Beijing Review> 50th Anniversary Reception
UPDATED: September-28-2008  
Golden Jubilee Celebrated
By JIANG WANDI

Beijing Review, China's only national English weekly news magazine, held a banquet on September 26 in Beijing, celebrating the publication's 50th anniversary.

More than 300 guests attended the gathering, including government officials, foreign diplomats and representatives of international organizations, media persons, Beijing Review's business partners, and the staff, retirees and consultants of Beijing Review.

Cai Mingzhao, Vice Minister of the State Council Information Office and President of China International Publishing Group (CIPG), read a congratulatory letter from Liu Yunshan, Member of the Political Bureau and the Secretariat of the CPC Central Committee and Minister of the Publicity Department of the CPC Central Committee, to start the celebration. It was followed by speeches by Wang Chen, Minister of the State Council Information Office, Li Dongdong, Vice Minister of General Administration of Press and Publications, Zhou Mingwei, Executive Vice President of CIPG, with which Beijing Review is affiliated, and Wang Gangyi, President and Editor in Chief of Beijing Review, who is also Deputy Editor in Chief of CIPG.

Founded in 1958, the weekly's English version was originally called Peking Review, but later was changed to Beijing Review. As a serious publication featuring news and views about China, Beijing Review has targeted foreign government organs, think tanks, academic institutions and transnational companies that study and follow what is happening in China. It has maintained a wide readership covering more than 100 countries on five continents.

Liu said in his letter to Beijing Review, "In the past five decades, Beijing Review has served as China's most authentic English-language news magazine following closely on the development trends of the New China, timely introducing its principles and policies to the world, reporting on the achievements of the Chinese people in various fields, and explaining the Chinese Government's stance on major international issues. Beijing Review has become an important channel for the world to understand and know about China. It is warmly received by readers from different nations, and has made positive contributions to the mutual understanding and friendship of the Chinese people and peoples around the world."

It is believed that Beijing Review was an outcome of the government's opening-up policy. During the Bandung Asia-Africa Conference in 1955 and thereafter, then Premier Zhou Enlai received a number of foreign diplomats and journalists who proposed that China establish a news publication in foreign languages to enable foreign readers, and suspicious Westerners in particular, to have a better understanding of the young republic, which was just founded in 1949.

It was under the auspices of the government that the first issue of Beijing Review in English came out in March 1958. Premier Zhou and his cabinet members paid much attention to the magazine and they even took some time to visit the newsroom to attend editorial meetings.

In 1992, then Chinese President Jiang Zemin praised the magazine as "a window into China and a friend of the world." In 2006, President Hu Jintao wrote to Beijing Review after reading the magazine's special issue marking the 55th anniversary of China-Pakistan diplomatic relations. "It is hoped that Beijing Review will continue its efforts in promoting cooperation and traditional friendship between China and Pakistan," he wrote.

The foreign interests in and demand for information about China have never ceased. During a long period from the early 1960s to 2000, Beijing Review started publishing French, German, Japanese and Spanish versions. The magazine even published Indonesian, Portuguese and Arabic versions for some years to cover a wider readership. The mid-1960s was a golden time for the magazine's circulation, which exceeded 130,000 per issue.

From 1990 to 2000, the newsroom published a monthly called ChinAfrica, targeting the African continent. The English-French bilingual magazine, introducing China's economic and social development experiences and including analyses of all issues related to China-Africa relations, was very popular among African readers.

Although Beijing Review's print version is only available in English, the publication's multilingual website provides more information nowadays and receives 5 million hits every week from all over the world.

Writing news in foreign languages for foreign readers is tough work that requires a special group of employees. The newsroom boasts a talent pool of well-educated and hardworking journalists, who carefully study China and then explain its events and trends by writing stories and opinions. During the past 50 years, more than a thousand of foreign experts from every part of the globe have worked at Beijing Review as reporters, editors and copy editors. While helping Beijing Review to be readable and understandable for foreign readers, some of them became China hands themselves after working and living in China for years.

Accompanied by the clicking of typewriters and keyboards day and night over the years, the magazine has seen its number of volumes grow from No. 1 to No. 51. What's worth mentioning, nevertheless, is that its reputation as a serious news magazine about what's happening in China and how the Chinese view the world has remained unchanged. The 2,600 issues of Beijing Review serve as a history of China's social development. They also contain the government's work report from the annual National People's Congress, main content of every five-year plan for economic and social development, reports about every high-level foreign exchange and full texts of related joint declarations and agreements. The magazine's numerous articles cover a wide range of topics, including legislation, foreign policy, national projects, cultural events, scientific inventions and archaeological discoveries.

In order to follow the trend of media development in the 21st century, the editorial board of Beijing Review has shifted some of its focus to its online publications. By providing up-to-date information from time to time in different languages via the Internet, the online versions are more reader-friendly and give readers from every corner of the world quick access to China-related news and views. Digital versions of the old issues of Beijing Review have been added to the publication's online database, so that readers can retrieve every story published during the past 50 years, thereby allowing the history of modern China to flow in front of their eyes like a river.



 
 
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