2001年9月11日，纽约世界贸易中心遭到恐怖分子袭击，举世闻名的双子塔楼轰然倒塌，从地球上永远消失。
本社美国总部的办公室原在世贸中心1号楼第46层，随着大楼的倒塌，也遭到了毁灭性的打击，荡然无存。
“9·11”事件发生后，全球的读者朋友、本刊的高级顾问、新闻出版界的同仁们，不管是原来相识的还是不相识的，都对本社美国总部及其人员的安危予以极大的关注。他们从世界各地来电来函了解情况，表示慰问，以各种形式传来他们的亲情；更有纽约华界的朋友们在危难时刻伸出友谊援助之手，为我们提供新的办公场所、办公用具，帮助我们从废墟上重新站起来。
“血浓于水”，天下炎黄子孙的心是相通相连的。在这里，我们谨向他们，谨向所有关心、帮助我们的新老朋友们再说一声：衷心地感谢你们！
现在，“9·11”已经过去不少日子了，“9·11”的阴影正从人们的心底渐渐消退，但是，恐怖分子毁灭人性、践踏人类文明的罪恶不应当被忘记。为了记住这个黑色的日子，为了忘却的纪念，本刊这一期特意安排了一个纪念专栏，并刊出报道《天使的名字》。这篇报道中的三位华人，虽然他们在“9·11”之前都是默默无闻的普通人，但他们在生死考验的紧要关头却表现了大无畏的献身精神，成为受人尊敬的英雄，成为华人的骄傲。从这个意义上说，他们也是华人名人，是当之无愧可以上我们这本《世界华人名人录》的。
“9·11”以后，世界格局发生了很大变化，这使得越来越多的西方人士不得不重新考虑一些问题，包括对中国的思考。本刊这一期在《特别专栏》上发表的史托尔·西敏顿博士的信就说明了这一点。这封信是史托尔·西敏顿写给他的小孙子们的，写得很轻松。他对中国显然还了解得不多，所以有些看法还很片面，但是，他对后辈们的忠告是对的：“我们需要研究如何同中国，这个在世界上拥有最多人口的国家交往”，因为“我们需要朋友，越多越好”。
这位哈佛博士所说的“朋友越多越好”的感受是很符合中国人古就有之的“朋友千个不多”的说法的。但愿有更多的人都能像他一样，从如今“更加艰难的世局”中感悟到这一点，那样，世界才有可能变得比今天好一些。
A
Notice for Readers
In September 11, 2001,
New York World Trade Centre was attacked by terrorism. The world
famous twin tower buildings collapsed and disappeared from the
earth for ever.
Our American headquarter
office, used to be on 46th floor of the One World Trade Centre,
also received a crushing blow along with the buildings toppling
down.
After the tragic attacks
of "September 11", our readers around the world, senior
consultants, colleagues in mass media circles, no matter acquainted
with before or not, were all paying a good deal of attention to
the situation of our American headquarter and its staff. They
tried to know the situation and expressed their sympathy and solicitude
by telephone, letters and other methods. What is more, friends
of New York Overseas Chinese gave a hand when the disaster happened.
They provided new premises and stationery for the office in order
to help us to stand up from the ruins.
"Blood is thicker
than water". The hearts of all the descendants of Chinese
are linked together and beat in harmony. We would like to say
here to these people, to all the other new and old friends who
took care and helped us: Thank you very much.
Now, some time has
passed since "September 11". The shadow of "September
11" is gradually going away from our hearts. However, the
sin of destroying humanity and wantonly trampling on the human
civilization should not be forgotten. In order to remember this
black date, in this issue, we especially arranged a commemorative
column to publish an article "Name of Angel". In this
report, three Chinese displayed their brave and sacrificial spirit
during the moment of life and death trials, although they were
average persons unknown to the public before "September 11".
They have become respectable
heroes and the pride of Chinese. In terms of this, they are also
famous Chinese. They are worthy to be in our "Who's Who of
Chinese Origin Worldwide".
After "September
11", the world structure has changed a lot. In these circumstances,
more and more western people have to reconsider some questions,
including the ponderation about China. The letter written by Stuart
Symington Jr to his grandchildren, which is in our special column
this time, underpins this point. The writing style of this letter
is fairly relaxed. He obviously doesn't know China so much, so
that some of his attitudes are quite lopsided. However, his advice
to the descendants is correct: "we should study how to get
along with China, the most populous country in the world"
because "we need all the friends abroad we can get".
The feeling of "the
more friends, the better" of this Harvard professor matches
a Chinese old saying "It is not too much to have thousands
of friends". Hope there are more people like him to realize
this from "a world that will not be as easy as we expected".
In this way, the world can be able to become somewhat better than
today.
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