It's two o'clock in the morning. Punkhairstyled Lin Chien-chih stealthily opens the front door and peers about inside. Luckily, the lights in his father's room are out and he is "safe" again. Lin, 27, has a police record, but he is in business for himself now and a volunteer guidance counselor for the Shan-hua Youth Outreach Center. Four of the five cases he has worked on so far have been successes. But even his own family knows nothing about this volunteer "moonlighting" of his.

Juvenile delinquency is a problem common to all industrialized societies and the ROC is no exception. Recent government figures are high. Nearly half the cases involve theft. Drug-related offenses are on the decline, but weapon possession and disorderly conduct are up four to five times over 1982.

The government, the schools, and parents all realize the seriousness of the problem. Guidance units set up by organizations such as the China Youth Corps, local youth commissions, police associations, and churches spare no pains in dealing with the problem and each plays an important role. But those that, like Shan-hua, use volunteer counsellors who have "been through it" themselves are few and far between.

Shan-yua Youth Outreach Center is a privately run organization founded by a retired elementary school teacher with a deep interest in guidance counselling. When Chou Chih-yung re 25 years of teaching, he took his retirement pay, gathered together some of the ex-problem kids he had helped turn around, and set up the center to try a new approach.

Shan-hua is unusual in several respects. First, guidance work has no fixed hours and takes place in coffeeshops, pubs, and underground dance halls. Second, the subjects of the counselling don't know the status of the counsellors; they think they are "one of them." Third, almost none of the counsellors have received any specialized training; though they all have steady jobs, most have police records and are street-smart with a flair for dancing, kungfu, or motorcycles.

And each has a history. Wang Mingchung, for instance, came from an unhappy home and had a rough time in school. He got into fights and ran a gambling den at 19. He changed around only after he got drafted. But for Lin Chien-chih, the army only made things worse, and he wound up in jail for a couple of months after discharge.

Lin met Director Chou by chance. "Somebody tried to cheat me and my friends. We were about to fight them when Chou Chih-yung came out from nowhere. He said a few words and settled the whole thing." Lin also remembers wanting to use a knife on an enemy after he got out of prison, but Chou told him, "You use a knife and he can use a gun. Do you want to go back to jail? Or get killed?" After some thought, Lin dropped the idea. Wang met Chou through a friend and respected him as an elder brother. "We were together so long, and I never knew he was a counsellor until last year when he asked me to be one too," Wang says.

Shan-hua counsellors conceal their identity for a reason. According to Chou's observations, teachers, parents, and counsellors are just the figures most problem teens rebel against. But the same heroworship mentality that leads them to join gangs can be turned to the good if the counsellor can establish a big-brother relation with them. They will then come to him with their problems and listen to his advice.

Experts disagree as to the effectiveness of Shan-hua's unorthodox methods. Liu Meng-tan of the Taipei Department of Social Affairs believes that Shan-hua volunteers are enthusiastic enough but that their efforts may well backfire due to their lack of expertise. She compares the difference between Shan-hua's methods and those of standard guidance counsellors to that between orthodox medicine and folk remedies and worries about unforeseen side effects. Orthodox methods may not always work but "they are, after all, easier to trust."

But Shen Ch'u-wen, director of the youth clinic at Veterans General Hospital, points out the success of the Big Brother and Big Sister programs abroad and believes that, properly directed, good-intentioned volunteers can be more effective than the experts.

Most of the cases taken on by Shanhua are referred by schools or parents. A guidance committee at the center then picks an appropriate counsellor to work on the case. The committee, made up of Director Chou and experts in psychology and other fields, also holds seminars to develop the counsellors' skills.

Being a counsellor is not easy. There is no pay; the hours are irregular; and the counsellors often find themselves in situations where they have to spend money to treat others. But they are glad to do it. "When you guide someone else, you guide yourself at the same time," Lin Chien-chih says. After counselling for six months, 19-year old Jen Hsiao-yu decided he was too superficial and resolved to go back to school and finish his studies.

After a problem teenager goes straight, follow-up is important to keep him on the right track. "It's like flying a kite," Wang Ming-chung says. "You've got to pay close attention. If there's a sudden gust or down draft, you've got to give a tug to keep the kite flying high and steady."

Because of increasing demands for its services, Shan-hua is constantly looking for new recruits. "As long as they're enthusiastic, warm-hearted, and--most important-- their thinking has changed and matured, then they're qualified to its be counsellors," says Chou Chih-yung. But because its resources are tight, Shan-hua has been able to take on just 21 cases up to now, including telephone guidance. Thirty-six incidents of criminal activity have been prevented. Another 50 cases are pending.

Money and volunteers are hard to come by, but Director Chou and his colleagues believe in what they are doing and are determined. On the right wall of Shan-hua's little office hangs a scroll with the words of President Chiang Ching-kuo: "Any one can walk a smooth road. But we must walk a road that others cannot. We must open a road where there is no road to go."

(Translated by Peter Eberly)

(Note: Pseudonuyms are used for counssellors in this article.)

[Picture Caption]

Lin Chien-chih's family knows nothing of his counselling work, form which he returns home late at night, tiptoeing into the family house.

Believe it or not, I am a guidance counsellor.

They have just seen "The Legend of Taipei," but somehow reality is a bitdifferent.

Have you any idea what we are thinking of?

Underground dance halls and bars are homes away from home for teenagers.

When counselling work runs into problems, workers discuss strategy with Director Chou Chih-yun.

Believe it or not, I am a guidance counsellor.

They have just seen "The Legend of Taipei," but somehow reality is a bit　different.

Have you any idea what we are thinking of?

Underground dance halls and bars are homes away from home for teenagers.

Underground dance halls and bars are homes away from home for teenagers.

When counselling work runs into problems, workers discuss strategy with Director Chou Chih-yun.