"Read" magazine is back! The literary review that has been on hiatus since the end of last year resumes publication on the 5th of this month, with a new name, a new editor, and a new look. 

"Read" will now be called "Book Town" in English, a direct translation of its Chinese name, which remains unchanged.

Essayist Yu Qiuyu is onboard as editor-emeritus, and the magazine will be sold in a paper format on newsstands as well as in electronic format online by the book portal Read Club. 

The online distribution model is apparently the key to the magazine's resurrection. The Beijing News quotes Read Club CEO and "Book Town" managing editor Huang Yuhai: "The business problems of "Read" magazine occurred in the area of distribution. In actuality, this kind of literary magazine does not lack readers in China. What is lacking is an effective distribution channel. So we hope that this transformed channel can break "Book Town" distribution bottleneck." 

"Book Town" will maintain the cosmopolitan flavor of the old "Read". From the mission statement in June's editor's note:

"To sketch out in broad strokes the language of our hearts is to be knowledgeable but not shallow, interesting but not forced, opinionated but not vulgar; knowledge knows no east or west, interest covers both home and abroad, and opinions are neither left nor right."

"Read's previous incarnation was a transparent copy of the "New Yorker". Will this new look keep "Book Town" afloat another year? Stay tuned!

(CRI.com June 6, 2006)