Helping Hands for Exploration

Behind the magnificent, heroic image of the explorer is often a tightly knit organization and ample financial resources that are the keys to success.

Hu Jung-hua, who, inspired by Japanese explorer Hyoichi Kohno, set off on a round-the-world bicycle tour in 1984, points out, "Before Kohno reached the North Pole on foot in 1997 he spent four or five years just on planning out the trip." In Japan, with a well-developed tradition of exploration, there are normally fan clubs for specific individuals that offer long-term support. Once the explorer announces his plans, the club moves into action, organizing lectures and going after sponsorship from business circles. When the Japanese economic bubble burst in the mid-90s, however, Kohno's fan club was unable to raise financial support from industry, so they approached the explorer's home prefecture-Ehime in Shikoku. Making their pitch on the basis of hometown sentiment, they were able to raise ¥90 million by having the local media encourage residents to make donations and by putting donation boxes in 7-11 stores throughout the prefecture.

In Europe and the US, where the culture of exploration is more mature, more professional and more commercialized, most explorers sign a contract with a public relations agency and get their activity before the public as a topic of conversation, eliciting broad public participation. In 2000 two women teachers, one from the US and one from Norway, completed a 100-day trek across the South Pole. This tremendous feat was broadcast on the Internet through the integrated support of their PR agency, academia, a satellite network, and Internet technology, and attracted innumerable fellow enthusiasts to tap into the web every day to follow the team's exploits. An educational software program on the South Pole was also developed, and with the financial support of the Volvo automobile company, was made available free of charge to allow primary school children around the world to get on the net and learn about the South Pole.

In Europe, the US and Japan, support for explorers and the creative energy spawned by exploration is perhaps something nurtured by a hundred-year tradition that starts from the late 19th century, an age of great voyages. Because interest in exploration didn't hit Taiwan until the 1980s, the scope and degree of difficulty of explorations carried out by Taiwanese naturally cannot be compared with those of countries like Great Britain or the US. Nevertheless, the lofty ambitions of our pioneers and the vision of those who support them behind the scenes deserve to be mentioned.

A look back over the last 20 years of Taiwanese overseas exploration activity reveals that the media played a significant role in advancing exploration during an age when general attitudes had yet to change.

Hu Jung-hua, recalling his spectacular cycle tour, says "it wasn't until a little over a week before I was set to go that I was introduced by the Rotary Club to a local reporter with the United Daily News." At the time very few people understood why he was making the tour. The Min Sheng Daily News started a feature column that followed the exploit, but was very dubious about the project. The paper gave Hu a very liberal amount of money for the columns he wrote as a way of offering indirect financial support, and when he had cycled to the half-way point they knew he was "for real." The United Daily News Group, to which the Min Sheng Daily News also belongs, then pulled out all the stops in its support, making it possible for him to continue and finish his tour, which took more than a year, with no financial worries. During the tour Hu's column "Roving the World on a Bike"appeared in the paper more than 600 times, riveting his readers' attention.

As 1985 began, Alan Hsu and three companions embarked on a worldwide trek they called "Four Heroes Walk the Word." This project was initiated by Independence News Group publisher Wu Feng-shan. To "encourage an enterprising spirit and improve the country's image," he selected four men from more than 500 hopefuls in a public competition to take part in the round-the-world trek. The men overnighted in tents in deserts and on snowfields, but even so the cost of the entire trip reached some NT$7 million. With the Independence News Group doing the planning and China Airlines providing the tickets, the trek proved a great success.

Besides the media, outdoor and leisure product companies like Jack Wolfskin and Atunas have also promoted Taiwan mountain climbing and exploration. Since last year Huang I-yuan, the secretary general of the Taipei Chinese Mountaineering Association, has been promoting an exploration project entitled "Legend of the Snow Leopard," which calls for a heroic climbing of eight Central Asian peaks of over 7,000 meters within ten years. Jack Wolfskin and Atunas are supporting this project with donations of their products and equipment.

The largest exploration activity in Taiwan history is just now entering the financial solicitation phase-"Gazing at Zheng He's Era, 600 Years After." Total costs will reach NT$150 million, far outpacing money raised in Taiwan over the years. The animating spirit behind this project, Alan Hsu, waves a thick sheaf of plans showing how they will use PR firms on both sides of the strait as well as their own people to solicit financial support from the business community. They know already that the well-known Swiss watch company Vacheron Constantin will donate a commemorative explorer's watch of limited worldwide production and will hold a charity auction, estimated to bring in several million NT dollars.

Alan Hsu says, "If 20 years ago the Independence News Group had not stepped up to help, it would have been impossible for me to organize things alone." The fact that in recent years a whole group of fellow enthusiasts have come forward to promote international exploration projects like "Trekking Without Genghis Khan" and "Gazing at Zheng He's Era" shows that financial support from Taiwan enterprises for exploration has taken great strides forward. Although he has no idea yet where the major sponsorship will come from for the current project, Alan Hsu is optimistic about the future.