I met Guo Geng seven years ago. Guo, then, was a snub-nosed monkey keeper in the Beijing Raising Center of Animals on the Verge of Extinction and a zoological research worker. He is the first person to have succeeded in artificially propagating snub-nosed monkeys in the center.

During my interview with Guo, I noticed a harmonious relationship between him and the rescued animals in the center, including snub-nosed monkeys, snow leopards, and white-lip deer, and I could see that he was a benevolent, kindhearted person.

Guo studied economics and trade at university, and after graduation, he worked for a foreign trade company for several years. In 1986, out of his love for nature and animals, which was fostered in childhood under the influence of his father, who was an environmental protection worker, Guo resigned from the company and started his research work at the Beijing Raising Center of Animals on the Verge of Extinction. Today, he has become an expert in research on animal protection. Over the past years, in order to enhance people's awareness of the need to protect nature and animals, Guo has delivered lectures at schools, institutions, and government organizations, as well as on radio stations, television stations, and web sites. In addition, he has written many popular science articles and books. At present, he is working at the Beijing Pere David's Deer Garden, and has established several dozens of environmental education projects, including the Tomb of Extinct Animals, the Wilderness, and the Wetlands.

A Good Companion of Animals

The Pere David's deer is a rare animal native to China. It is sometimes called sibuxiang (four dissimilarities) in China, because it has horns like those of a deer, a head like that of a horse, hooves like those of cattle, and a tail like that of a donkey. Guo Geng also calls himself sibuxiang: He is part teacher, expert, tour guide, and part writer.

When receiving visitors, he looks like a professional tour guide, carrying a megaphone and narrating information and stories about the Pere David's deer in the garden, inviting visitors to participate in games related to environmental protection.

Guo Geng has designed all the educational facilities and slogans in the garden, which give emphasis to the rights of animals.

He has designed question-and-answer boards about environmental protection, with a question on one board and the answer on another. The most interesting of the questions is "What kind of animal is the most frightening in the world?" Children's answers are quite often a wolf, a bear, and a wild boar.

However, the answer that Guo has designed on a board is a mirror, which reflects the most dangerous animals, us, human beings, since we are responsible for the extinction of many species of animals. He has designed a game that asks children to press close to a withered tree and listen to the sound the tree makes when it is shaken and struck. Through the game, children can experience how the normal life of squirrels has been disturbed.

Guo has designed two cement tables painted with charts, which show the required land and resources a man needs to support himself. The charts make visitors think about why humans have not calculated the required land and resources for animals, also members of the Global Village. The inexhaustible demands we make on nature, including the excessive reclamation of land and lumbering, have made elephants, snub-nosed monkeys, and other rare animals homeless, and have upset the ecological balance.

In the Pere David's Deer Garden, there are inclined tombstones of more than 100 extinct animals. "Supposing the last tiger on earth makes a futile effort to seek a mate in a man-made forest, the last hawk falls out of the polluted sky, and the last Pere David's deer cries plaintively in a dry marshland, how will the human being . . . ," Guo emotionally recites to visitors at the graveyard in order to get them thinking. "To protect the living conditions of human beings, man should not eat wildlife, use their fur, or waste energy resources. It is not difficult for everybody to be an environmentalist," Guo continues.

"Environmental Protection Is My Lifework"

Guo Geng has established his own social values and has chosen a new way of life. Although he is very busy protecting nature and animals and lecturing every day, he feels free and happy.

At the graveyard of extinct animals, I saw a tree tied with many red scarves belonging to the Young Pioneers. According to Guo Geng, on the day marking the beginning of the 5th solar term this year (April 4, 5, or 6, traditionally observed as a festival for worshipping ancestors at graves), primary school pupils came to sweep the tombs of the extinct animals and tied their red scarves to the tree. Guo was deeply touched and realized his efforts are not in vain.
(China Pictorial October 02, 2003)