Beginning new projects and making changes at the start of a new year may be cliché， but the start of 2023 is significant in several ways. First， for the first time since the pandemic began， people in China can travel freely around the country and even abroad. It is also a season of change for TWOC， starting with what you’ve doubtlessly seen is the new look of the magazine.

Our new issue design features more eye-catching photography， unique illustrations， and an improved layout to better highlight our signature reporting. It is produced with recycled paper， which allows us to reduce our carbon footprint， reduce the number of print issues per year from six to four， while increasing the page count per issue in order to offer more of our high-quality content at a time. We’re also upping our digital game， with exclusive video and audio content and more timely multimedia stories available to our digital subscribers online.

Our commitment to in-depth， human-centered storytelling remains as strong as ever. We start the year with a cover story on how China can better invest in its next generation by making city life more friendly to young children and young families. We continue the child theme by looking at the beginnings of children’s literature in China and a short fictional story from the perspective of a “l(fā)eft-behind child” in the countryside， then move on to a motorcycle journey around Taiwan， a look at whether tea drinking is becoming cool again among young Chinese， and two stories about the disappearing sides of old Hong Kong， illustrated with generous on-location photography.

This also marks my last editor’s letter as managing editor of TWOC. I first joined the publication in 2016， became managing editor in 2019， and saw it through tremendous changes not just at TWOC itself but in China as a whole， especially in the last three years. I am prouder than I can express in this short letter of all that we’ve achieved during this time， and as my colleague Sam Davies takes the baton as our new managing editor， I look forward to seeing him steer our team in continuing to become a leading English-language resource in good writing and original， human-centered storytelling on China.

Hatty Liu

Managing Editor