Newsletter No. 21

No.21 August 1991 cuHK Newsletter also convened on 7th February by the u se to see if amendments and revisions were needed for any particular chapter. The original plan was to collect all final versions by early March for publication in mid-April. Due to some delay in submission of final drafts by certain authors, however, China Review could only be launched three weeks later in May 1990. Two Points of Interest A 'Yearly Review without a Year Those who are sharp-eyed will notice that China Review, published in the form of a yearbook, does not carry the year ‘1990’ in its title. Why? Mr. T. L. Tsim explains that it was intentional rather than an oversight. The steering committee did deliberate on whether to specify the year under review, but as the new book couldn't come out until after April 1991 ， which was rather late for ayearbook for 1990 ， and as no conclusion had yet been reached on the frequency of future issues, committee members finally decided to leave the title as it is。 Separate folios for Individual Chapters China Review has 510 pages but they are not folioed in the conventional manner. Each of the book's 21 chapters has a separate set of folios, all depending on the order and the length of the chapter in the book. For example, the folios of the first chapter containing 16pages will be 1.1, 1.2,1.3... to 1.16; whereas the eighth chapter with 26 pages will be folioed 8.1 ， 8.2 ， 8.3.. to 8.26. When a publication is done on a desk-top publishing software, such a folio system will save much time, especially when substantial changes have to be made in certain sections. Future Plans It's too early yet to gauge the success or otherwise of China Review in terms of the number of copies sold, as the book has been available for only three months. But this unique yearbook on China has already attracted much attention locally and overseas and has received many favourable comments from various quarters. The CUP has also finally decided to publish China Review on an annual basis. Preparation work for the 1991 review is already underway, and having learnt from last year's experience, organizers have reset the overall timetable to enable the new book to come out as soon as possible. One thing, though, they are still unable to do this year: to produce a Chinese version of the review. It is solely because Chinese desk-top publishing softwares currently available on the market are technically not sophisticated enough to cope with the tight schedule of such a publication. What They Say about the Book Mr. T .L Tsim, director of CUP ‘The fact that China Review could be published within such a short period of time is due in no small measure to the efficiency of the two editors. Of course, the desk-top publishing system also played an important role and the efforts of the production team in the CUP were indispensable for timely publication. The time element in books like China Review usually demands prompt action on the part of the publisher, and that's why CUP had to devote so much of its resources to ensure aspeedy delivery of China Review. As the project will be a recurrent one, we also need to step up publicity work for the first issue .' Prof. Kuan Hsin-chi, editor ‘ I was at once editor and contributor and well remember how much midnight oil I burnt for the book, particularly at the final proof-reading stage. On the one hand I had to rush my own article. On the other I had to chase after other contributors for their final drafts. On balance, however, the "labour pains' of producing China Review are more than off-set by the joy of witnessing its successful publication, especially when the quality of the book is higher than anticipated.' 7