抛砖引玉

Mandarin

simpl.		抛砖引玉
trad.		拋磚引玉

Etymology

Literally: to throw a brick and to get a piece of jade in return

Idiom

抛砖引玉 (simplified, Pinyin pāo zhuān yǐn yù, traditional 拋磚引玉)

1. A self-deprecating way to express the idea of offering one's own relatively worthless words, opinions or services in order to solicit the more valued words, opinions or services of others.

   20多年前，曾琦是第一個到廈門投資的港商，當時他想的就是當一個“拋磚引玉的人”，讓更多的港、澳、台、僑商回國投資。

   More than 20 years ago, Zeng Qi was the first Hong Kong businessman to go to Xiamen to invest. At the time, he thought of himself as a a plain rock that attracts jade, making it possible for even more businessmen from Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan to return to the Motherland to invest.

References

• "抛砖引玉" (in Mandarin), Guoyu Cidian On-line Mandarin Dictionary (國語辭典). URL accessed on 2009-05-25.

External links

• Google hits: .cn
• Google hits: .tw