The First Jamboree took place in Nanking in 1929. The boy and girl scouts coming from the different pans of the country were more than 3,600 in number.
In 1931 the National Headquarters of Boy Scouts of China was duly reorganized into the General Association of Boy Scouts of China. Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek was elected President with Mr. Tai Chi-tao and General Ho Ying-chin as vice-presidents. The General Regulations were issued in 1933 and §he Association was officially formed in 1934.
In 1936 the Second Jamboree was held in Nanking. There were about 11,000 boy and girl scouts participating in this great gathering.
The aim of Boy Scouts of China is the development of boys who are able to do things, who have good habits and a strong character, who possess useful general knowledge and who are sound in body, that they may become intelligent, kind-hearted and courageous young men prepared to build the nation upon the Three Principles of the People and to attain the ideal of a world commonwealth.
The following guiding principles are stressed in the training of Boy Scouts of China:
(1) Loyalty, filial devotion, kindness, love, faithfulness, justice, harmony and peace shall be the basic principles in the training of Boy, Scouts of China.
(2) Boy Scouts of China shall not, either as individuals or a group, participate in political activities. No restriction, however, shall be placed upon their lawful participation as citizens in such activities. Nor shall there be interference with their individual religious beliefs.
(3) Child-centered education, modern scientific methods of education and an educational program based upon physical and psychological, conditions shall be the standards in the training of Boy Scouts of China to meet the needs of the nation.
(4) The training of Boy Scouts of China shall emphasize learning by doing. Boy scouts should be given all possible opportunities for direct contacts with nature and with society in order that they may develop various kinds of skill in dealing with material things as well as proper attitude towards life.
(5) Boy scouts of China should be taught to consider seriously that service to others brings the greatest happiness and to adopt as their mottoes "Be Prepared," "Do a good turn daily," and "The greatest aim in life is to serve."
In the General Association there are one president and two vice-presidents. They are honorary officers and are not responsible for the administrative work of the General Association. The National Council, the members of which are elected by provincial and municipal councils in addition to some members appointed by the Ministry of Education, is entrusted to work out plans, policies, rules and regulations for the boy scouts of China. The National Council elects an executive board of five to nine members to assist the chairman in directing its affairs. The chairman of the Council is concurrently the Minister of Education of the National Government. The General Secretary conducts the business of the National Council under the direction of the Chairman and of the Executive Board.
After the Sino-Japanese war broke out in 1937, all boy and girl scouts were given special training in order to meet the emergency needs. For this reason, the public had the impression that boy scouts of China were more or less militaristic. As a matter of fact, they were not militaristic at all. They were only expected to be able to do more wartime service.
As they were mobilized to take part in war-time service, both on the front-line and in the rear, they took up various jobs connected with relief of refugees, first-aid to the wounded, maintenance of communications, transportation service, anti-air-raid and fire brigade activities. They accomplished their assignment remarkably and many pictures and stories telling about their services were published in the newspapers and magazines.
In 1924, 6 Chinese boy scouts and 3 scouters were sent by the Kiangsu Provincial Association of Chinese Boy Scouts to attend the Second World Jamboree at Copenhagen, Denmark. It was the first time for China to join the international gathering. In 1935, the silver jubilee Jamboree of Boy Scouts of America was held in Washington, D. C. To develop closer friendship between these two great nations, China sent a delegation of 13 boy scouts as a good-will mission to America. In 1937, 13 boy scouts and 5 scouters were sent to Holland to attend the 5th World Jamboree. In the same year, Boy Scouts of China became a member of the Boy Scouts International Conference.
After World War II, the General Association of Boy Scouts of China returned to Nanking. Owing to the Communist menace we had to evacuate from place to place. It was really a great loss to the Boy Scouts of China that Dr. Tai Chi-tao, our Vice President, and Rev. Yen Chia-lin, the Founder of Chinese Boy Scouts, died during the evacuation. At last we came to Taiwan in the spring of 1950. All organizations of boy and girl scouts on the mainland have been disbanded by the Reds, and most scouts and scouters have been killed or persecuted.
The General Association of Boy Scouts of China resumed its work in Taiwan under the sponsorship of President Chiang Kai-shek as president of the Boy Scouts of China and General Ho Ying-Chin as vice president as well as under the direction of the Ministry of Education. Now the chairman of the National Council is Dr. Tien-fong Cheng, Minister of Education, who takes a keen interest in the movement.
In the past, Scouting was taught as part of the school subjects included in the Junior High School curriculum, in the hope of having all students perfectly trained. In most school the Boy Scouts Uniform is used as the school uniform. This is certainly against the Boy Scouts principles and international standards. We know that when everybody is a scout, nobody is a scout. Therefore, with a view to guarding against such mistakes being repeated in the future, the General Association has consulted with the Ministry of Education on the matter of improving the training of boy scouts. The following points have been decided upon as guiding principles:
(1) Boys to join scouts at their own will
(2) One troop to consist of not more than four patrols
(3) Each troop to have at least one well-trained scoutmaster
(4) Training to emphasize outdoor activities, social service and handicraft
(5) Boys who have not passed the tenderfoot class and taken the Scout Oath. are not allowed to put on uniforms
(6) To train well-experienced scoutmasters
(7) To train scouts by emphasizing quality rather than quantity
(8) To take good contact with the International Bureau to comply with the World Scout Standards
The boy and girl scouts in Taiwan are under the direct supervision of the Taiwan Provincial Council. There are twenty-one local councils under this provincial council to lead all the scout on this island. According to recent records of the General Association, the figures of the registered boy scouts in Taiwan are as follows:-
Boy Scouts 5,658
Scouters 413
Troops 257
Sea Scouts 8
Skipper 1
Sea Scout Ship 1
Camping and other outdoor activities are now very popular among the youngsters. In honor of the 16th anniversary of the General Association of Boy Scouts of China, more than one thousand scouts took part in camping at Taipei on November, 1950. The first encampment on Taiwan lasted five days and was found in every respect to be much more successful than in the past. The Second Jamboree of Taiwan was held in November, 1952 in the central part of this island. There were 3,250 boy and girl scouts present at this gathering.
The boy and girl scouts here show their sincerity too by rendering services to society. For example, they collected more than 150,000 second-hand books and magazines and donated them to the army libraries in 1951. Recently, they purchased one hundred and twenty-one radios with their own savings to present them to the soldiers.
At present, the girl scouts movement in China has not yet been adequately developed, and therefore Chinese Girl Scouts are still under the leadership of the General Association of Boy Scouts of China. The girl scouts, themselves have so faithfully fulfilled their duties that the General Association is willing to give them warm support. The Girl Scout Committee of China was formed by a group of leading ladies on February 26, 1953 and the chairman is Mrs. Gunsun Hoh. The plans for the training of girl scouts are quite different from the program for boy scouts. They should be based upon physical and psychological conditions. The committee is working actively to carry out these plans. It is going to open a training class for sixty girl scout leaders this coming autumn. Now we have 3,434 girl scouts, 69 scouters and 61 troops in Taiwan.
The boy scouts movement in China has been going on for over forty-one years. We regret, however, that we are still far from having attained the goal of promoting peace and good-will among the nations of the world, because China has been suffering from the ravages of war for many years and lacks sufficient financial support, good hands, and a scheme for propagation. Despite all these difficulties, we have to do what we can to come up to the world scout standards.