Letter from the Editor

Letter from the Editor With this issue we begin publication of the newsletter of the Conference on Chinese Oral and Performing Literature (CHINOPERL). We anticipate that the News will appear at frequent but irregular intervals determined solely by the length of time it takes for sufficient material to accumulate. This time we are concerned chiefly with the organizational meeting held at Cornell University March 31 and April 1, 1969. From now on we will be largely dependent on our readers for News material. Regularity of publication and usefulness of content will depend on the energies of members of the permanent Conference. Anything of general or specific interest to CIUNOPERL should be submitted for inclusion here. Because this issue is devoted principally to the first meeting, it may appear to be the exclusive organ of a tiny in-group. Nothing could be further from the intent of the editor or of the group as a whole. Association with CHINOPERL is achieved simply by stating one's interest in our activities as outlined in the rest of this newsletter. We have in fact printed about ten time-s as many newsletters as there were participants at the first meeting, and we have distributed these to various individuals and institutions in an effort to contact every possible i.nte.rested party. It is obvious that availability of funds is going to limit our interaction for a while, but we feel that a great deal can be accomplished now by setting up these lines of communication with interested persons, and by asking .for volunteer assistance whenever needed . 111e Cornell China Program has agreed to pay for the first two issues of this newsletter. We would like to call your attention 1:0 the layout of this issue since .it will be the model for our numbers of at least the immediate future. You will note that we have included communications from our correspondents and other members of the Conference. In the interests of speed, accuracy, case of handling of characters and diagrams, and editorial protection, we. have elected when possible to multilith material as received rather than retype every page. The. results may be somewhat unaesthetic but we hide behind the defense of economy c1n