A、Its arrangement in the bilingual English-Chinese form and its detailed explanatory notes. B、Its taste for people of all kinds

Q: Mr. Chen (Yu-Lun), what kind of a magazine The World of English is?
A: Our magazine is of course a magazine for learning English. But we adopt a different way adhered to by some other English learning magazines. We don’ t make a special effort to the discussion of the theoretical problems of English lexicology, English grammar, etc. We pay attention to concrete practice. We believe practice yields genuine knowledge. Aside from literary works, we put our emphasis on the provision of articles that cover various fields in order to help readers expand their vocabulary rapidly and enhance their reading level effectively, and concurrently to raise their level in writing. Moreover, perhaps the unique feature of our magazine is its arrangement in the bilingual English-Chinese form and its detailed explanatory notes. It is quite convenient for self-study. Another motive of us is to render assistance to those who, while learning English, are able also to enrich their knowledge and enlarge their field of vision.
Q: What columns does The World of English have?
A: Well, it has a variety of columns, such as special articles, the literary world, the art circles, social science- economics, history and geography, science and technology, sports, personage, prism, garden of harmonious interest, western profiles, medicine and health, knowledgeable sketches, selected readings in newspapers and periodicals, culture and education, words and sentences, translation exercises, etc.
Q: Who are your target readers?
A: They are people of comparatively higher levels, consisting largely of university students, postgraduates, English workers, those who study English by themselves and lovers of English language. For example, I met some of my target readers in America and England in 1988 - 1989 when I visited some of the higher institutions as a visiting scholar. They were ail young and promising graduate students, very kind and obliging to me. They said that they were the ardent readers of our magazine and as a result of reading it, they had not only enlarged their English vocabulary and then succeeded in getting high grades in TOEFL and GRE, but also learned a lot of knowledge from the selected materials in our magazine which assisted them to go abroad to pursue further study.
Q: As far as I know you are the only regular staff of the magazine. How do you deal with the daily routine of writing or selecting articles and scripts for the magazine as well as the work such as printing and publishing ?
A: Yes, I am the only member of the official staff. That means I am the only member within the manning quota of the unit. But of course I cannot handle the work alone without the assistance of many of my trusted and capable friends who render invaluable assistance in the selection of materials, in translation, in editing, in proofreading, etc.
Q: I was tom you have a hard, rich and colorful life and your life is legendary, could you please tell us something about it?
A: Because my father died early and my 6 brothers and sisters also died early, I was under the special care of my mother who worked hard in the educational circle and was so dear to me that I should say that without her painstaking care I really could not survive till now. I’ ll never forget her in my whole life. My father’ s elder brother helped me a lot too. Due to the stringency or financial difficulties of the family, there’ s no way out but to leave my home when very young to temper myself and to solve my livelihood problems. I might say that I had taken up all kinds of trade. I moved from Beijing to Shanghai in 1933 and left Shanghai for Hongkong in 1938. While I was in Shanghai and Hongkong, I joined the national salvation movement. Later on in 1940 with meagre savings I travelled from Hongkong to Vietnam by boat and overland from Hanoi to Kunming by a dilapidated train for an entrance examination to the most famous National Southwest Associated University. (It was an integrated or united university of three most prestigious universities, the Peking University and Tsinghua University in Peking and Nankai University in Tianjin which were forced to move to. Kunming due to Japan s invasion of China in 1937.) There I took part in progressive student movement and drama performance activities for propagating the War of Resistance Against Japan. After graduation from the university, I joined the army in 1944, flew over the Himalaya Mountains by an American military transport plane called C-47 and was assigned to duty in India and later on in Burma Front at the Forward Echelon of General Stilwell’ s Headquarters as an interpreter, a translator and a liaison officer between Chinese and U. S. troops in their common fight against the cruel and desperate Japanese in the remote and uninhabited jungle for more than 17 months. I traversed the hard way a greater part of Bunn. a during that period. After V. J. day of 1945, I came back to Shanghai. At first I taught in a junior college and not long afterwards, I became an executive of a company and visited many places in the world including South Korea and many other countries of Europe, Middle East and Southeast Asia, sometimes part work part study, such as a work-study student in Sorbonne. I travelled extensively. But soon after the liberation, I came home in response to Premier Zhou’ s call at the end of 1950.
In the beginning, as the chief executive, I took pains in reestablishing The Fifties Publishing House with my old friend Jin Chang You from 1950-1956 which was later amalgamated into The Time Publishing House and subsequently The Commercial Press where I worked since then. I was branded as an American special agent soon after the Great Cultural Revolution started. In 1969, three years after, I lost my left leg due to the abnormal situation ruling at that period, but all the same I had to go to the May-Seventh Cadre School in Xiannin, Hubei Province under the order of Lin Biao. There I had to use my remaining right leg to operate the sewing machine to mend worn clothes for other downcast cadres. After rehabilitation I returned to The Commercial Press to resume my old job and started the magazine. By the way, I should say to the advisers, members of the editorial board, writers, translators and my dear readers of The World of English many thanks for their warm support from 1981 fill now.
Q: Now, let’s come back to the magazine, do you have any new plans for it?
A: Besides our cooperation with the Central People’ s Broadcasting Station on its Radio English On Sunday programme in the broadcast of some of the articles of our magazine, we also planned to sponsor a course of lectures (we have sponsored such lectures 60 times before) with the purpose of raising the listening and speaking levels of the readers. In addition to this, we are planning to turn our magazine from bimonthly into monthly to satisfy the need of the general reading public. This has been hoped for many years. Please be generous with your valuable comments and suggestions.