China Today


China Today, formerly titled China Reconstructs, is a monthly magazine founded in 1952 by Soong Ching-ling in association with Israel Epstein. It is published in Chinese language, English, Spanish, French, Arabic, German and Turkish, and is intended to promote a knowledge of China's culture, geography, economy and social affairs as well as positive view of the People's Republic of China and its government to people outside of China.
Foreign advisor and naturalized Chinese citizen Israel Epstein was editor-in-chief of China Today from 1948, later he returned to China at the request of Soong Ching-ling. The magazine was renamed China Today in 1990. China Today is usually published the first week of the month. In the pages of the magazine, the editors usually showcase what they characterize as the growing modernization and development which has happened in China since the reform and opening up policies of Deng Xiaoping began in December 1978.
Acclaimed novelist, playwright and translator Gao Xingjian, who received the Nobel Peace Prize in 2001, worked in the magazine as the chief of its French edition from 1975 to 1977. Renowned actor, translator and politician Ying Ruocheng briefly worked for the English edition of the magazine in the 1960s. He went on to serve as China's vice minister of culture in the 1980s and played a supporting role in the 1989 Oscar-winning film The Last Emperor.