Common Talk Weeklyshuang yu zhou kan
issue date

Suggestion
October 29, 2003

Here is a proposal I hope Common Talk will consider helping me to promote!

Xiamen is well known for being a Garden Island, Sanitary City, Cultural City, Nations in Bloom Gold Medal winner, deng deng—but foreign companies are not going to invest in Xiamen just because of flowers or cleanliness (though this certainly helps make the final decision).

And for years, Xiamen has talked of emphasizing hi-tech, and is even now working on moving non hi-tech enterprises off the island. So I urge the city to adapt yet another 'title'--one that would capture foreigner's (and Chinese?) imagination--that of "China's Silicon Island".

In English, the word "island" evokes images of tropical, exotic beauty, so "Silicon Island" evokes not only an image of hi-tech (like Silicon Valley), but also beauty (for Silicon Valley is in California, which is mostly desert).

Savvy Californians' idea of "Silicon Island" galvanized the imagination of business people worldwide, and they descended upon the area, hoping to capitalize upon the benefits of being in a "hotbed of hi-tech." Xiamen is also rapidly becoming a hotbed of hi-tech. In fact, the Torch hi-tech investment zone has already made a name for itself in China because of the high profits that have come out of such a small area.

So given our present achievements, and our goal of becoming a true center of hi-tech, I propose that we give Xiamen an additional name—that of "China's Silicon Island, because it is hi-tech that will allow us not only to prosper but to enable our island to remain a garden city.

Sincerely,

Bill Brown

P.S. This is a sample of how we could begin describing the "Silicon Island" .

"Located on the southeast coast of China, with an area of 1565 sq. kilometers and a population of 3.14 million, China's beautiful subtropical garden island of Xiamen is a famous hometown for overseas Chinese and Taiwanese. This ancient trading port was one of China's first four Special Economic Zones (SEZs), and is today not only one of China's top international ports but also rapidly becoming a hotbed of hi-tech—hence the new nickname China's Silicon Island."

Here is a sample picture of a "silicon island"; expert artists, of course, could make it into something more striking.

我有个想法，希望双语周刊考虑一下，帮助我一起将其变为现实。

众所周知，厦门是个花园岛屿，卫生城市，文化城市，还是花园城市的金牌得主，等等。但是外资企业不会仅仅因为鲜花或干净就选择在厦门投资，当然这两者也可 能帮助他们做最后的决定。而且这么多年来，厦门也一直在探讨，强调加强开发高科技，现在还致力于将那些非高科技产业移出岛外。因此，我极力敦促厦门能冠以 另一个称号，一个能抓住老外和中国人的想像力的提法，那就是——“中国的硅岛”。

在英语中，“island”能唤起一种想像力，热情及异国情调的美。因此“硅岛”不仅能像硅谷那样带来高科技的形象，更能带来一种美，因为硅谷所在地加利 福尼亚州大部分地区皆是荒漠。

加利福尼亚州创造了硅谷，并且培养了全球商人的电子意识，他们蜂拥而至，试图在这片高科技的热土上，制造滚滚财源。厦门也正在迅速地成长为高科技的温床。 事实上，火炬园这么小的土地上产出如此巨大，在中国已经声名鹊起。

总之，依据我们目前已取得的巨大成就，还有我们的预定目标——成为一个真正的高科技开发区，我提议，赋以厦门另一个名字——那就是中国的硅岛。惟有这样， 厦门才能够不断保持欣欣向荣的局面和“花园城市”的美名。

附：我们该如何描述“硅岛”，这里有一个样本。

“坐落在中国的东南海滨，拥有1565平方公里的土地和314万的人口，厦门，一个中国美丽的亚热带花园海岛，是一个著名的侨乡，涵盖海外华侨和台湾人。 这一古代的贸易港口，已是中国的四大经济特区之一。今天，她不仅是中国名列前茅的国际性港口，还迅速地发展为高科技开发的热土。因此，厦门又有了一个全新 的别称——中国硅岛。”

图为硅岛的样本。