The Chinese Boy ScoutsAnd Their Long March

The picture was taken in 1930. Five members of the Boy Scouts of China, come all the way from National Chi-Nan University, hold a triangular pennant with two lines of Chinese characters, in the middle of which is a boy scouts emblem. The top line reads: "National Chi-Nan University Boy Scout Troop," and the bottom line: "South Sea Archipelago Long-Distance Hiking Squad." At the tip of the pennant is written "1930."

Sixty-nine years ago, these boy scouts that attended the Shanghai campus of Chi-Nan University trekked across Vietnam, Cambodia and Thailand to arrive dusty and weary in Malaya (now West Malaysia).

On August 16, 1930, they arrived in Taiping, the then capital of Perak State, and were enthusiastically received by Huang Shih-chun, now 87 years of age.

Huang says that when the boy scouts passed through Taiping, they were introduced to him through friends, and he drove them all over the area on a sight-seeing tour. He also arranged for them to stay at the local Fujianese Community Hostel. The following day, the five boy scouts continued on south to Ipoh.

"They were all very conscientious. I offered to drive them a part of the way in my car, but they refused. They said they were going to walk all the way to Singapore. I'm not clear as to what happened to them later. We didn't correspond afterwards. Are they alive now or dead? I have no idea." Huang Shih-chun is advanced in years, and cannot remember some things from the past.

In order to expand their knowledge of the world, the Chinese boy scouts camped and cooked out in the open the entire way, crossing over whole mountain ranges in a time when transportation systems were underdeveloped, traveling by foot all the way from China. Huang Shih-chun greatly admires their adventurous and brave boy scout spirit.

Sixty-nine years have already passed, and the world has changed. The capital of Perak State has moved from Taiping to Ipoh. Chi-Nan University moved from Shanghai to Guangzhou, and today has a new campus in Puli Township, Nantou County, Taiwan. And Huang Shih-chun has gone from the eagerness of youth to the dotage of old age. It truly causes one to lament the cruel passing of time.

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(facing page) This is the way Chinese boy scouts dressed in 1930-is it any different from today?

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Five brave Chinese boy scouts who hiked overland to Southeast Asia.

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Huang Shih-chun, who welcomed the five boy scouts, has grown old. How can he help but sigh when he looks at the boys in his old photographs, who were as young as he was in those days?

（facing page） This is the way Chinese boy scouts dressed in 1930--is it any different from today?

Five brave Chinese boy scouts who hiked overland to Southeast Asia.