Taiwan Today

A sudden afternoon thunderstorm turned the field into a muddy mess at the Cheng Ching Lake Scenic Area in Kaohsiung City, southern Taiwan on July 12 this year. After the cloudburst, the air remained hot and humid and drizzle fell intermittently from the overcast sky, which got even darker as evening approached. Despite the poor weather, more than 12,000 scouts from 21 cities and counties in Taiwan, as well as scouts from 29 other countries, gathered on the area’s largest field, getting ready for the opening ceremony of the 2011 Scouts of China Centenary and 28th Asia-Pacific Regional Scout Jamboree.

Scouting has been part of the Republic of China (ROC) throughout its 100-year history, though it was briefly interrupted in 1949 when the Chinese communists took over mainland China. But the General Association of the Scouts of China (GASC), the ROC’s largest umbrella organization for scouting, was re-opened later in 1949 after the Nationalist government moved to Taiwan. At the opening ceremony for this year’s jamboree, Chao Shou-po (趙守博), chairman and chief commissioner of the GASC, noted that fact when he said “The jamboree is being held to celebrate both the ROC’s 100th birthday and the 100th year of the scout movement [in the ROC].” Scouting’s core approach is to educate young people in the outdoors, and over the past century, several million ROC citizens have participated in its programs.

The scouts at Cheng Ching Lake, most wearing scout caps and carrying disposable yellow rain ponchos, consisted of boys and girls of all ages. In general, scouts are not segregated by gender in Taiwan, and a typical scout patrol can have both boys and girls. As the ceremony went on, the scouts responded to every speech and performance with loud applause and cheers, smiling all the while and showing no signs of tiredness or boredom. For them, the evening’s rain and humidity were just small discomforts that would not be allowed to stand in the way of having a good time.

During the five days of the jamboree, the scouts would be required to work together to cook, erect tents and build campfires under uncertain weather conditions, as well as tackle physical challenges designed to test their strength and resilience. That marks a clear departure from the summer vacation routines of many children and teenagers in Taiwan, according to Sam Wu (吳學勛), a teacher at Mingdao High School in Taichung, central Taiwan, who led a group of Mingdao scouts to participate in the event. “Activities like this are totally different from sitting at home with the air conditioning on, as most would do,” he says. “If you can get through this, there’s not much else you can’t do.”

Morio Chen (陳盛雄) is an assistant professor in the Department of Civic Education and Leadership at National Taiwan Normal University (NTNU), a teacher’s college in Taipei. Chen, who is responsible for training teachers who teach scouting in middle schools, says that most scouting activities take place outdoors because the environment is more uncertain, and thus more challenging. “That’s why it’s only natural for scouts to develop the capability to handle the unpredictable,” he says. “Such quick responses and experiences will come in handy when they have to tackle challenges in the real world.”

Scouting is a worldwide youth program in which outdoor activities such as camping, backpacking, hiking and sports are employed to teach young people how to work in teams, as well as help them develop physical, mental and emotional strength. The program got its start in 1908, when Robert Baden-Powell, a lieutenant general in the British Army, published the book Scouting for Boys. The principles Baden-Powell espoused in the book were drawn from his earlier military books and experience, as well as from his experience of leading a camping trip for the local Boys’ Brigade. The book sparked a worldwide trend, with scouting spreading to some 216 countries and territories in the 20th century. Today, there are more than 30 million scouts around the world.

In the ROC, scouting got underway in 1912 when Yan Jia-lin (嚴家麟), a school youth leader, organized the nation’s first scout troop for boys in what is today’s Hubei province in mainland China. As with so many other people who went on to become scout leaders, Yan was inspired to form the troop after reading Scouting for Boys. Besides training his troop under Baden-Powell’s principles, Yan also translated the book into Mandarin as a way to promote the emergence of similar organizations throughout China. Scouting thus began emerging as a voluntary, informal educational movement across China, with the first troop for girls coming into existence in Shanghai in 1919.

A few years later, Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石), then commander-in-chief of the Nationalist army, was preparing to begin the Northern Expedition (1926–1928) to battle warlords who controlled the northern part of China. During this period, scouting became somewhat of a platform for military recruitment, as the Nationalist government established its own scouting committee in 1926, Morio Chen says. “After that, the scouts were incorporated into the Kuomintang forces,” he says.

The year 1934 saw the founding of the GASC, the ROC’s national scouting organization. The GASC was recognized by the World Organization of the Scout Movement (WOSM) and became a WOSM member in 1937. A national-level organization with WOSM membership allows a country’s scouts to take part in various world scouting events, including the World Scout Jamboree, the World Scout Moot and the World Scout Conference, the last of which is a general assembly that meets every three years to discuss policy and strategies for the worldwide scouting movement.

After the GASC was re-launched in Taiwan in 1949, scouting continued to receive support from the Nationalist government in Taiwan and remained closely connected with the formal education system, raising concerns over whether local scouting was truly independent at the time, according to Chen. “The government listed scouting as one of the mandatory courses in middle school in 1937. As a result, most children first gained knowledge of scouting at school and joined troops organized by schools rather than in their community,” Chen explains. “It was quite different from scouting in countries like the United Kingdom and United States, where scout troops are usually organized in communities in a voluntary manner.”

In fact, Chen says that there was even a period of time after the Nationalists arrived when Taiwan counted all middle school students, boys and girls alike, as scout members because they had taken a mandatory scouting course. It was not until the early 1950s that the government made a clear distinction between schools’ scouting courses and scouting programs that students choose of their own free will, he says. After the distinction was made, taking the middle school course no longer meant that the students were automatically considered to be scouts, as they needed to volunteer to join a scout troop to earn that distinction.

Prime Years

Yet it was also due to the great emphasis the education system placed on scouting that the movement reached its prime in Taiwan between the 1950s and 1970s, according to Chen. Statistics from the GASC back his assertion, showing that Taiwan’s number of registered scouts peaked at 570,000 in 1974. “At the time, schoolteachers were strongly encouraged to receive training to become scout leaders, and those who led scout patrols sometimes could be rewarded by having their required teaching hours reduced,” he says.

The number of local scouts began decreasing in the late 1970s. Chen says the decline became even more noticeable after the GASC officially became independent by registering as a non-governmental organization (NGO) in 1994. The trend continued in 2001 when the Ministry of Education consolidated courses in scouting and home economics, as well as guidance counseling, into one single middle school course. While taking the revamped course teaches students some of the basics of scouting, they still cannot become bona fide scouts until they volunteer to join a troop. Over the past five years, the number of troop members in Taiwan has hovered around 50,000.

Taiwan’s experience is not unique, as the scout movement faces the challenge of dwindling participation in many other parts of the world, according to the GASC’s Chao Shou-po. One problem is that in Taiwan’s increasingly urbanized, fast-paced society, the concept of learning self-reliance in the outdoors tends to look a bit old-fashioned. In the view of Kuan Chih-ming (管志明), a veteran scout leader, principal of the Affiliated Senior High School of National University of Tainan and a committee member for the GASC, “activities like chopping wood and building fires don’t satisfy young people today.”

The perception that scouting is outdated has led to moves to modernize its curriculum to make it more attractive to children, Chao says, by incorporating up-to-date topics such as environmental protection and Internet applications into scout activities. In this regard, Kuan believes that the way to make scouting interesting enough to attract today’s youth is to include exciting sports activities. “For example, when Taiwan held the World Rover Scouts Moot in 2004, we arranged for all 6,000 participants to go whitewater rafting on the Xiuguluan River,” he says. Among rafters, the river in Hualien County, eastern Taiwan has a reputation for being one of the island’s most thrilling. “The agency [in charge of the area] was concerned about safety issues, but I believed it was also a great opportunity to teach scouts how to take safety precautions to protect themselves and the people around them.” The 6,000 scouts were divided into four groups of 1,500, with one group per day making the descent. After four days, all the scouts had completed the descent safely.

Another reason for the reduced interest in scouting is the rise of a competitive education system, which has made parents unwilling to allow their children to participate in activities not directly related to school. “Academic achievement remains the top priority, and some parents think that the scout program takes up too much time,” Chao says. The scouting official believes, however, that the activity offers its own set of educational benefits. “It’s true that children have to make an effort to set aside time to participate in scouting activities,” he says. “But what most children learn in the classroom is how to get good grades, while scouting can help them develop social skills and teach them how to adapt to society better.”

Others point out that participation in scouting does not necessarily lead to poorer academic performance. Chang Chong-feng (張瓊鳳), a graphic designer, says that her son learned to manage his time well after falling in love with scouting at the age of 8. “He always got his homework and studying done on Saturday so he could do scouting activities on Sunday,” she says of her son, who is still a scout at the age of 17. “He’s managed to keep his grades up so far.”

A further factor behind scouting’s reduced popularity is that generational differences prevent some scout leaders from connecting with their young charges. Kuan believes that to attract and retain more participants, scout leaders now need to make a bigger effort to communicate. “In the past, children would do just what they were asked to do,” Kuan says. “Now you can still ask the children to complete the same tasks, but you need to spend more time with them first. That way they feel a closer bond with you and understand why you’re asking them to do the assignments.”

Although scouting is less popular today than it was in its heyday, it still draws strong support from participants, including those who see its benefits extending to school and the workplace. “I used to accept being No. 2 in a lot of things,” says middle school student and current scout Hung I-hsin (洪怡心). “But scout training has given me the courage and confidence to lead people.” Hung is now president of one of her school’s bands.

Lin Ben-yuan (林本源), CEO of Chung Mei Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd., says being a scout helped him develop leadership skills early on and taught him how to organize and motivate his employees. “I’ve found the patrol system in scouting—dividing people into teams of six or seven—is the most efficient way to manage employees,” Lin says. “Small teams make it easy for supervisors to delegate tasks and motivate team members,” he explains. Lin says he has also adapted scouting’s system of rewarding individuals with merit badges and applause to motivate staffers at his company, although he replaces the badges with advanced on-the-job training, which can provide a path to promotion.

Lin and his wife are former scouts and current scout leaders who encouraged all three of their children to take up scouting at a young age. “Scout activities help prepare them for future challenges through experiencing hardship,” Lin says. “As society gets more and more competitive, what children need the most are the abilities to work together with others and tolerate frustration.”

Growing Confidence

Graphic designer Chang Chong-feng says she has seen her son’s confidence grow since he joined a scout troop. “My son used to be somewhat timid and afraid of taking on responsibilities,” she says. “In the beginning, he would come home from scout camp in tears if he or his team had lost a competition. But then I started noticing that he became happier and able to take failure much better than before. The scout training helped him become a better leader and a better follower. Now he always has a big smile on his face. His physical strength and interpersonal relationships have improved and he often gets elected as class president at school.”

Similarly, NTNU’s Morio Chen says that it is important for children to participate in outdoor activities like scout camps because those who spend more time at home miss opportunities to learn social norms through interacting with others. “Not so many children have to share a room [or tent] and wait in line to take a shower like they do at scout camp,” Chen says. “Scouting gives them the opportunity to make their own rules, follow the rules and respect others.”

Most say that accomplishing challenging outdoor tasks has helped them grow in self-confidence and resilience. College sophomore Lo Tsun (羅諄), for example, got involved in scouting in primary school and is still a scout today. Lo says one of his most unforgettable experiences as a scout was organizing a hiking trip when he was in middle school. “I was chosen as patrol leader, which meant I was responsible for designing the activities our patrol would do that day,” Lo says. He decided to take his patrol hiking in the mountains of Yangmingshan National Park, which is located to the north of Taipei City. The distance Lo chose to cover was almost twice as long as the patrol normally hiked. “It was so long that in the middle of the challenge, some of my patrol members asked if they could take the bus instead of finishing,” he says. “But we felt good when we arrived [at the finish].” Lo says. “I felt great about being able to set a challenge for myself and then accomplishing it.”

Write to Audrey Wang at audrey@mail.gio.gov.tw