Dong Yuqing, an amateur journalist and photographer, resigned his position as deputy editorial director in a daily newspaper in Jingmen City in Hubei Province six years ago to begin life as an environmentalist. Despite a handicap to his leg caused by polio, he trekked isolated mountains and forests taking photos of endangered animals. From thousands he took, Dong then picked photos of 210 kinds of animals for his self-published Photographs of China's Endangered Wild Animals. It was the first such book produced by an individual in China.
Along the way, Dong made every effort to protect the animals he encountered, and those efforts have been recognized both by the central government and international organizations. On April 22, 2001, Dong Yuqing was awarded with the Earth Ward by the Chinese Environmental Journalists Association (CEJA) and Friends of the Earth (FoE HK).
Dong remained unmoved in the face of his new celebrity. He told the media covering the presentation ceremony he hopes all the people of the earth could cherish human’s friend – the animals.
"We are the citizen of the earth, they are, too. We have no reason to kill our bothers and sisters, neither can we kill the innocent animals and eat them," Dong said.
Dong got inspiration to leave the Jingmen Daily and send all his funds on photographing and protecting animals after he saw in Beijing in 1995 a giant panda photography show. The arduous living conditions for the giant panda as well as other rare animals shocked him. He remembered in his childhood he played with cranes and wild geese near the river. But his friends disappeared after sulfide mines and phosphate factories set up in his hometown.
"I must do something to bring my cranes back," Dong told himself.
After establishing his own company, the first thing Dong did was to hold his own photo exhibition of the wild giant panda, and the one-month exhibition in Jingmen was a great success. More than 30,000 people came to his exhibition and signed their names on the Environmental and Animals Protection Volunteer List.
With this encouragement, Dong decided to use 50,000 yuan (US$6,040) in savings to hold a nationwide wild animal photo competition although his decision met strong opposition from his wife. Dong already had spent 20,000 (US$2,416) yuan in holding the giant panda photo exhibition, and the family had no more money. So Dong mortgaged his house.
The photo competition received 568 entries in 18 months, and 117 were chosen by the experts as featured works. Dong was excited with the results from the competition, but his excitement was soon replaced by the worries: the expenditure of 90,000 yuan (US$10,874) far exceeded the budget. When his wife complained about the heavy debt, Dong said: "As a citizen of the earth, it is my responsibility to do anything for the benefit of human beings and the earth."
Dong became a real ‘nut’ for wild animals after these two events. He felt nature was calling him to be close to her, just like White Fang heard the call of the wild. He couldn’t stay at home but determined to take the photos of the animals through his lens. Since he was in debt, Dong thought it would not make much difference if you had borrowed 1,000 yuan or 100,000 yuan. He then borrowed lot of money to purchase photography equipment.
For the next three years (1996-1998), he traveled around Yunnan, Sichuan, Hainan Island and northwest China. When he called his wife and she warned him not to be killed by tigers, Dong answered in a light way: "I hope the tiger could eat me. You know, the Buddha devoted himself to hungry tiger. I would follow him."
He didn’t encounter any tigers, but he did come across a bear. One night in his trip in Yunnan Province to try to take photos of the Asian tiger and Malaysian bear, he heard heavy breathing outside his cave. Dong turned his flashlight on the bear and at the same time made a flash with his camera. The bear was scared away by the fully armed Dong.
During his travels, Dong kept a diary of some 500 thousand words about 600 kinds of animals, he used some 2,110 rolls of film and he walked some 30,000 kilometers (18,641 miles).
Dong returned home with his valuable photos and notes. He also felt a duty to let the people know what is happening to animals in the wild. Dong told his plan to his wife, "I want to publish my photographs and notes over the past three years in a book." This time she agreed. She and Dong went all out to borrow money from relatives, friends and colleagues. They were told that the book would need at least 600,000 yuan (US$72,490). Somehow the funds were collected and the book, Photographs of China’s Endangered Wild Animals, was published in 1998.
The success of the book didn’t stop his work in protecting animals. In December 1999, he joined a research team with experts from the State Forestry Bureau to study the golden monkey (snub-nosed monkey) in Shennongjia, Hubei Province. What he saw there shocked him, too. Large areas of forests were being denuded by logging. Where could the golden monkeys find a home?
He wrote a report on this when he returned which was carried in Hubei Daily, People’s Daily, and China Youth Daily. His article aroused government attention. Soon the Hubei provincial government released restrictions on logging in the Shennongjia area.
"I know we have a long way to go. But as we wave faith, we will see a different tomorrow," Dong said.
(CIIC translated from China Times 08/07/2001)
