A New Starting Point

In the previous issue, we posted an appeal for contributions from all our Sinorama readers who would like to tell us moving stories that have happened to you personally. In this issue, we will provide a more detailed explanation of the procedures, welcoming experts from all fields to take part. We hope that readers, through our various columns, will find a medium of interchange.

In the past, Sinorama carried the column "Communication Channels"; from now on, besides serving as one more channel of information for those who plan to return to Taiwan to work, the column will also offer the service of answering all your questions, whether it be things you need to know about helping your children adapt to schools here when they return, or how you can purchase the "Book of the Month" overseas, or tough questions of a more esoteric ilk. Sinorama will find the answers for you. Our goal is to make Sinorama an important window for our readers, both at home and overseas.

Of course, our readers who are spread all over the earth are a source of power which we must utilize to generate inspiration. Having read Sinorama for quite some time, you must have something that you want to say, whether it be praise or criticism. We are looking forward to knowing your reactions and thoughts.

Another issue about which quite a few readers have expressed their concern is Sinorama's rather small font size, which makes reading difficult. Due to the fact that enlarging the font would mean reducing the contents, this month we will begin by enlarging the Potpourri section. Afterwards, we will evaluate the results. If you have any opinions, please do tell us.

Hunting down and reporting on the problems that overseas Chinese commonly encounter has always been one of the goals of our magazine. In the past we have carried many in-depth stories in such columns as "Chinese in Focus" and "Famous Universities of the World," and we also have reported on the hardships that overseas Chinese have faced in their host countries or the stories of young students abroad.

In this month's cover story, we report on a certain elite sector of the population--Taiwanese engineers in America's Silicon Valley. The exact number of this group, regarded by their countrymen as "the favored sons of heaven," cannot be ascertained, but the experience which they commonly share is, having carved out quite a successful career, their biggest problem is not the pressure of work, nor culture shock, but the dilemma of how to tie the big knot.

This crew of engineers, with high educations, high salaries, and high ages, live in an area where the ratio between overseas Chinese males and females is very disparate. They have inherent objective limitations, and therefore they won't give up any chance to court a member of the fairer sex.

However, they are all doing quite well for themselves, and this group of engineers is rather unwilling to compromise for something less than what they expect. They usually have clear-cut expectations of their better halves: professional, young and financially independent. Their requirements put a lot of pressure on enthusiastic matchmakers, both in the US and the ROC, who don't know how to help them. Our writers went to Silicon Valley to interview these elite bachelors and explore their inner feelings. The seemingly "light comedy" reporting style isn't meant merely to arouse a smile; there are several successful cases which may serve as examples for our readers in a similar plight: many of the men in question, after recognizing the discrepancy between reality and their ideals, went all out and ended up with a blushing bride in their arms.