Chiou Hsiang-hsun: Keeping it Simple

Chiou Hsiang-hsun, who was born in 1976, works as a software designer.

Much to his surprise, his one-time idea of collecting loyalty points to be converted into donuts gave him so much pleasure that he wanted to continue doing it.

"Bringing donuts to children in institutional homes and seeing the smiles on their faces proved extremely enticing to me," Chiou says.

Convenience stores from time to time come up with new loyalty point programs. For the 30th anniversary of the 7-Eleven franchise in Taiwan, the chain held a promotion in which customers could obtain one point for every NT$30 spent. A total of 30 points could then be exchanged for a donut, drink or the like. Chiou Hsiang-hsun figured he couldn't get very much by himself, so he got his workmates to pool their points with the idea of holding an "afternoon tea party." But on further reflection he came to the conclusion that assembling their points simply to gorge themselves wasn't really all that cool. Wouldn't it be better to do some public service work, he thought, and "share the joy"? It was the genesis of his idea to pool loyalty points so as to acquire donuts for needy children.

Starting off by sending emails to his workmates, he ended up getting about 70 or 80 blogs to spread the word. Perhaps a dozen of the blogs were somewhat famous, such as "Mr. 6." What's more, the United Daily News also published a short piece about his campaign. Like the film Cape No. 7, the plan unexpectedly struck a chord with people-with the "box-office take" ending up setting one record after another. Chiou's original target of 3000 points was reached in a flash, and within two months the total stood at 55,633 points.

Chiou kept a running total on the Internet, bringing a transparency to the process that helped earn the public trust. Points, seemingly inexhaustible, floated down like snowflakes. Every night after his job, Chiou would count up the new total by himself. "Most of the contributors were working women," he says, "and the Investigation Bureau of the Ministry of Justice provided the largest number of supporters." One investigator put the running total of loyalty points being donated for public service on the MOJ's internal network and mobilized the entire bureau to pool their points. Ultimately, those points were turned into 1,514 donuts, which were distributed to various children's homes and tribal villages in mountain areas. Points were also converted into 340 cans of dogfood, which were contributed to an animal shelter in Pali, Taipei County.

When Chiou brought the donuts to Taichung's Huei-Ming Home for Blind Children, the children welcomed him enthusiastically by playing music and singing. It left a big impression on him. At the Yikuang Orphanage in Taipei County, Chiou Hsiang-hsun got to see Hu Kuang-yuan, who won a gold medal in swimming at the 2007 Summer Special Olympics....

It's worth mentioning that he might easily have collected many more points than just mentioned, but in the course of the activity someone pointed out to Chiou that his method was technically illegal. It turned out that engaging in public-interest fundraising activities in an individual's name was forbidden under the Statute Governing Fundraising for Non-Profit Purposes, to prevent fraud. This astonished Chiou: it turned out that there were rules to follow even when doing good, and that he had made a mistake before even completing his first good deed.

A flood of ideas

Unlike his contemporaries, who focus on their social lives, having fun and enjoying their youth, Chiou keeps busy on his vacation days and after work with public interest work. It's work that has even prevented him from returning to his family home in Hsinchu to celebrate Father's Day. What has inspired him to focus his life on benefiting others?

"It may have been cultivated from my work environment at my last job," Chiou says. Chiou worked for Yahoo Taiwan, which had a policy of allowing one day off a month for an employee to perform public service work. This enabled workers to engage in public service activities together. He once went with a group of more than ten of his colleagues to the remote Pinghsi elementary school in Taipei County, where they engaged in fun activities with the students. Slowly but surely, doing public service work became a habit.

In his office, Chiou's desk has earned a reputation as a "recycling station." He takes the money he gets for recycling bottles and paper and uses it to support a child through the relief organization World Vision. And Chiou and several friends, who are also Internet workers, are planning a "fairtrade" website, which they hope will serve as a public interest platform to help Aboriginal women to sell their handicrafts (at no cost to the women).

With his successful experience in doing good, and thoroughly convinced that "as long as there are catalysts, social benevolence won't be extinguished," Chiou's brain is constantly considering new models and ideas for doing good.

"What will remain is the goal of keeping it simple," says Chiou. He is working on a new concept of offering one hour of service-be it house cleaning, electrical repair work, courier service or so forth-for every NT$1000 that is contributed to World Vision. This is virtually the public service model provided by the "young idol" television series Why, Why Love. We'll have to wait and see whether it will once again resonate with the public, but one thing is certain: Chiou's commitment to public service is here to stay.