The story goes that an emigrant from Taiwan sitting out the obligatory initial period of residence in his new homeland was so fed up with the quiet, unruffled simplicity of life there that he hired a boat to smuggle him back to Taiwan, where he enjoyed the island's lively, colorful atmosphere for a while before sneaking back again.

Someone told an emigrant friend how much he envied him for being able to "go fishing every day and enjoy life!" With a look of frustration his friend replied: "Going fishing once in a while is all very nice, but going every day will drive you crazy!"

Shortly after the lunar new year, a long-established Zhejiang-style restaurant was packed with diners. At one large table seating a dozen or so guests, six had come from Vancouver. They had all emigrated to Canada from the ROC and were back for the new year holiday. "After all, the Chinese food in Taiwan is still the best. . . ."

Actually the modern generation of Chinese have no monopoly on emigration. Large numbers of Chinese moved abroad even back in the Ching dynasty. They went for many reasons, but their common aim was to find a better life. However, after wave upon wave of migrants have gone to seek their fortunes and live their lives in all corners of the world, a new phenomenon has arisen: that of emigrants "returning home."

The most striking example is that of people from Hong Kong and Taiwan who moved overseas for reasons such as politics, environment and education, returning usually because of the flagging economic performance of their chosen countries. Some bring their whole families back, but in most cases the husband returns to Hong Kong or Taiwan while the wife and children stay overseas. The phenomenon has spawned many new expressions, like "better half in America" or "aerialists" to describe these "semigrants."

Statistics show that in 1992 some 10,000 emigrants returned to Hong Kong, a figure equivalent to 16% of those who emigrated from the colony the same year. In 1993 almost 20,000 returned, equalling 30% of that year's emigrants.

Although there are no accurate figures on emigrants returning to Taiwan, companies here which handle emigration formalities estimate that since 1990, when Western economies went into recession, about half the male heads of new emigrant families gaining resident status in such countries as Canada, New Zealand and Australia, have returned to Taiwan after completing their arrival formalities.

Returning from what has been called a "Lonely Heaven" overseas to the "Happy Hell" of Hong Kong or Taiwan must surely create many conflicting emotions and internal struggles. Our cover story this month comprises a series of articles on this phenomenon common to both Hong Kong and Taiwan, in which we aim to track down the reasons for and consequences of the stream of returnees.

Now that Sinorama has opened its pages to articles from our readers, we hope you can send old photographs depicting the emigration experience, or accounts describing your feelings after moving overseas, along with anything else you feel is worth sharing with other readers.

Since Sinorama began calling for readers' articles on life overseas, we have been delighted to receive excellent contributions from around the world. Our only regret: we should have started long ago!

Among the categories of articles we have asked for, "Bringing up the Next Generation" has attracted the largest number of contributions, illustrating the value we Chinese place on our children's education and the effort we invest in it. But to date we have had no contributions at all in the category "Old Photographs of Emigrant Life," so we hope you can find some time to rummage through your trunks and cupboards to find any old photos you have hidden away there, and send them to us with a simple explanation, to let Sinorama readers share those precious images of your (or your grandmother's generation's) emigrant life.

Sinorama was founded in 1976, and in the first half of this year we will be starting our "20th birthday celebrations." One of the planned activities is called "In Quest of Our Long-Time Readers," and we welcome you to take part (for details see the advertisement in this issue).

As well as having grown from 36 pages at its inception to well over 100 pages today, Sinorama has worked hard to transform itself from an "armed forces magazine" or "government publication" as it was perceived in its early days, into the general interest magazine it has now become. Apart from the efforts of the editorial team and other staff over the years, the support, encouragement and constructive criticism received from readers have given us the greatest impetus to continue to improve. One long-standing reader recently wrote to send us a check for "Uncle Ah Kun," whom we featured several issues ago in our report "Ah Kun's List," asking us to pass the money on to him to help those in need. Other readers have written asking us to enlarge Sinorama's typeface, because their reading glasses are no match for our present type size. . . . Many readers studying overseas have told us they have found Sinorama and its books of collected articles very useful in their studies and when writing papers.

We have already passed on the checks sent in by readers. As for using larger type, we have started doing so in our "Potpourri" section, as we are sure our more attentive readers will have noticed. But for our main reports, for reasons of space (increasing the size of the Chinese and English typefaces means that any given article will fill more pages), we are currently still considering what is the best solution.

We hope readers will also write and tell us about any problems to do with overseas study, emigration or other matters to which they cannot find a solution, for our recently reinstated column "Communication Channels." We will compile and publish relevant information as quickly as we can.

We also hope you can suggest topics for our articles in general, for after all the number of our editorial staff is limited, and if we can mobilize Sinorama readers around the world to give us leads to follow up, this will surely enrich our magazine's content and increase its appeal.

The run-up to our 20th birthday celebrations will soon be under way, and we welcome all old friends of Sinorama to join us in taking part!