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AmoyMagic--Guide to Xiamen & Fujian
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Pioneering XMU Publishing House
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Pioneering Xiamen University Press
When I approached Xiamen University Press in 1999 I was surprised they so quickly agreed to publish Amoy Magic in English. And over the years I've come to appreciate not only XMUP's pioneering spirit but also greater professionalism, creativity and efficiency than I have found in most publishing houses I have worked with.

Pioneers XMUP blazed new trails in Fujian by publishing “Amoy Magic—Guide to Xiamen ” because our province had very little foreign language promotional materials, which is probably why the rest of the world knows so little about Fujian. Although a thousand years ago South Fujian was the start of the Maritime Silk Road and the gateway between China and the world, today when foreigners envision China they think not of Fujian but of Beijing, Shanghai, Canton, or Xi'an.

Most of Fujian's promotional materials have been in Chinese because we have primarily targeted Overseas Chinese (most of whom are from South Fujian), but this strategy is wrong for two reasons. First, many later-generation overseas Chinese don't even read Chinese. Second, as China opens up further to the world, Overseas Chinese account for an increasingly small percentage of foreign investment. So the only way we will deflect foreign investment from Shanghai and Guangdong to Fujian is to promote our province with foreign language materials. Xiamen University Press dared to produce such books, even though the market potential was not very promising and they received no municipal or provincial government support. XMUP has even printed a Chinese version, because to better promote our province Chinese must begin to appreciate it from a foreigner's perspective.
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Happily, the publishing of “Amoy Magic” did bear some fruit. Readers e-mail me almost daily, and over the past few months I've met several foreigners in Xiamen who had intended on investing in Shanghai or Guangdong, but learned about Xiamen from Amoymagic.com, visited our city, bought Amoy Magic, fell in love with our city—and moved here to work, teach or invest.

“Amoy Magic—Guide to Xiamen ” has not been a great profit maker, even though has been printed 4 times, but XMUP continues to reprint the book because they see the need. XMUP has also published “Mystic Quanzhou—City of Light,” “Discover Gulangyu ”, “Magic Fujian,” and Xiamen University--Strength of the Nation,"and will soon publish a couple of other English books we are working on. I hope that eventually XMUP will reap what it has sown!

Professional and Efficient I appreciate not only XMUP's pioneering spirit, but also their professionalism and flexibility. Neither XMUP nor I had ever produced such books so we worked as a team and learned together. My editor Xiao Shi did not take an axe to my book but patiently discussed issues, leading me to make the changes myself, in my own way. I learned much from him and the other members of the staff.

I have also marveled at XMUP's creativity. Xiao Shi suggested the Chinese name 魅力厦门 and since then it has become a slogan used by many government activities (such as the 2004 Xiamen International Marathon, a Xiamen Government DVD, etc.) XMUP also encouraged me to typeset the book myself, using many of my photos and cartoons. While the books' format is very informal, many readers have expressed their appreciation for the unique style, which is quite unlike other guidebooks.

Over the years I have worked with four other Chinese publishing houses, and while they were all invariably courteous in their dealings, I was frustrated in many areas, from editing to typesetting, and several experiences were downright unpleasant. XMUP as allowed me to be part of the team and given me an opportunity to be creative in my attempts to better promote my adopted home of Xiamen and Fujian. I'm very thankful for XMUP, and I hope that in the future this pioneering publishing house will reap the recognitions and rewards (money would be nice too!) that it deserves for being the first Fujian publishing house to seriously promote our province to foreigners.

Thank you, Xiamen University Press!

开拓创新的厦门大学出版社
(谢谢!)

1991年当我初访厦门大学出版社的时候，我很惊讶他们竟如此干脆就同意出版英文版的《魅力厦门》。这些年来，我不仅欣赏厦大出版社的开拓精神，更钦佩他们的专业素质，创造力以及极高的办事效率。这些优点正是很多与我合作过的出版社所缺乏的。

先驱者厦大出版社出版《魅力厦门》，在福建省开了先河。因为，之前我省几乎没有什么自我宣传的外语出版物，或许这正导致外界对福建了解较少。虽然，千年之前闽南就成为了“海上丝绸之路”的起点，也是中国和世界交流的门户。然而，今天外国人谈起中国，想到的却是北京、上海、广东或是西安，并非福建。

大多数宣传福建的书籍都是中文的，因为我们主要面向海外华人读者（他们大部分是闽南人），但是这种想法是不对的，原因有二：第一，很多华裔子女不懂中文；第二，随着中国的不断开放，海外华人投资者在所有海外投资者中占的比重越来越小。因此，想把原本打算投向上海、广东等地的资金吸引到福建的唯一办法就是大力用外语来宣传我省。厦大出版社在没有任何市级、省级政府补贴的情况下，仍然坚持出版了这本市场前景并不是很广阔的书，并且还印刷了中文版，因为要更好的宣传我省，中国人也必须学着从一个外国人的视角来看它。

可喜的是，《魅力厦门》的出版还是收到了一定效果。我几乎每天都能收到读者们的电子邮件。过去几个月，我也结识了一些原本打算在上海或广东投资的外国朋友。他们从《魅力厦门》的网站上了解了厦门，带着这本书来到这里，并且喜欢上了这个城市，纷纷到这里来工作，教学或是投资。

《魅力厦门——厦门指南》这本书虽然马上就要第4次印刷了，但却获利有限。厦大出版社坚持要重印，因为他们觉得很有必要。出版社还出版了《魅力泉州》，《魅力鼓浪屿》、《老外看福建》，《魅力厦大》很快连同我们现在正在创造的几本英文书也要出版了。我希望终有一天厦大出版社播散的希望的种子能够结出累累硕果。

专业、高效我不仅欣赏厦大出版社的开拓精神，更钦佩他们的专业精神和工作的灵活性。因为此前厦大出版社和我都没有出版过此类书籍，所以我们共同学习，一起摸索。有时，编辑小shi对书中某些内容有不同的看法，他并没有好不留情地把这些内容删掉，而是耐心的和我一起讨论，引导我用自己的方式进行修改。我从他以及其他的出版社工作人员那里受益匪浅。

厦大出版社无穷的创造力也令我惊叹。小shi 建议将书的中文名字定为《魅力厦门》，后来这句话竟成为许多政府活动的宣传口号，2004年的厦门国际马拉松大赛，以及一张厦门市政府的宣传光碟都使用它。厦大出版社还鼓励我自己为这本书排版，附上一些我拍摄的照片和自创的漫画。这本书的形式非常随意，许多读者都表示他们非常喜欢这种独特的、与其他旅行指南截然不同的写作风格。

这些年来，我与其他四家中国的出版社也有过合作，虽然，他们对我总是彬彬有礼，然而，从编辑到排版，我屡屡受挫，有几次真的非常不愉快。但是，同厦大出版社的合作让我感到，我是群体的一员，我也能发挥自己的创造力更好地宣传我的“第二故乡”厦门、福建。我由衷的感谢厦大出版社，我希望今后这家我省出版业界第一个对外宣传我省的、具有开拓创新精神的出版社能够得到应得赞誉和褒奖（能赚钱就更好了！）

谢谢你，厦大出版社！