Ko Hsin-ping hopes that children’s curiosity about insects will rub off on adults too.
When Ko Hsin-ping entered graduate school in the Department of Entomology at National Taiwan University after taking top marks in the entrance exam, he dreamt of becoming a professor and returning to teach at his alma mater. But after he received his master’s degree he chose to set up in business, breeding insects on a large scale and rejecting the practice of capturing insects from the wild. His outstanding skills enabled him to breed large numbers of the rare Australian rainbow stag beetle, and many overseas museums are his customers.
However, his aim is not to make money, but to “do something to help insects.” Since becoming curator of the Taiwan Insect Museum, although it has mostly operated at a loss, Ko has still been unwilling to give up his childhood dream: to create a place where children can observe insects free of charge.
On entering the Taiwan Insect Museum, near Taipei’s Linguang metro station, we notice a calligraphic wall plaque inscribed with the words chong jie chuanqi—“A Legend in the Field of Insects”—referring to none other than the museum’s curator, Ko Hsin-ping.
He is currently raising more than 10,000 insects, and thanks to his superior techniques, some adult beetles have reached sizes that set new Guinness World Records. He truly deserves the title of “Taiwan’s ablest insect keeper.”
Artificial breeding to protect nature
At the time when Ko Hsin-ping received his master’s degree, the card collecting and arcade game “Mushiking: The King of Beetles” was popular in Taiwan. At the height of the craze there were more than 80 insect shops operating on the island, and more and more members of the public were keeping insects. The number of insects that traders captured in the wild vastly increased. Seeing this situation, Ko, who was good at raising insects, decided to set up in business and breed them in large quantities, in order to reduce the harm to the environment.
“Commercial insect hunters can catch more than 100 stag beetles from the wild every day, but to breed stag beetles you catch just a few and bring them back to breed in captivity. However, you have to raise the larvae for a year before they are fully grown.” Ko explains that although this approach is more costly, it enables one to keep track of the insects’ growth history so as to ensure quality, and one can also clearly tell consumers how long each insect is likely still to live.
The main factors to pay attention to when raising insects are temperature, freshness of feed, container size, and level of disturbance. Ko Hsin-ping says vividly: “You only need to change beetles’ food once every month or two; if you change it every day you will terrify them, and if you carelessly startle them, they will think they are about to be eaten!” Also, the larger they grow at the larval stage, the bigger the adult insect will be. The process looks simple in theory, but it takes long years of insect breeding experience and knowledge to get on top of the essentials.
When we ask Ko what rare species he has bred, he struggles for a moment to choose a favorite from among his successes. “Have you ever seen a rainbow stag beetle? They’re incredibly beautiful, with iridescent wing cases, but they only live on hills in the tropical rainforest of northern Australia. Specimens used to be extremely rare, and could cost NT$50-60,000 each.” Later, through a Japanese entomologist he knew, Ko was able to lawfully obtain some larvae, and with painstaking care he bred large numbers of adult insects. The rainbow stag beetle, once considered a flagship species, has now become an entry-level pet insect.
Another of his successes, the satanas beetle (Dynastes satanas) is a rare protected species from the mountains of Bolivia. International movements of any specimens collected from the wild require licensing under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES). But the satanas beetles bred by Ko Hsin-ping are not subject to this restriction, thus facilitating international research exchanges on the species.
The idealistic curator
Ko Hsin-ping took over as curator of the Taiwan Insect Museum in 2008. By that time the Mushiking craze had run its course and in all of Taiwan only three or four insect shops were still operating. He recalls: “Everyone thought I was a fool. The beetle craze was at rock bottom, so why did I still want to get involved in this market?” But, he says, once the speculative phase of the market had abated, in fact this was a good time to educate the public about the right approach to keeping insects as pets.
“When children keep large insects, they just want to get them to fight. In fact that’s OK, because beetles’ bodies are built for combat. As long as the two opponents’ strength is evenly matched, they won’t come to any harm.” Through the insect museum, Ko Hsin-ping hopes to teach children that what matters most about keeping insects is not quantity, but that by doing so they can learn an attitude of caring for living things, and a scientific spirit of observation and analysis.
Ko sets great store by the quality of the courses the museum teaches. He requires its docents to write down the concepts and values underlying each lesson, and stipulates that when they teach at outside venues they can take with them only three species of insects and other animals, so that the children have sufficient time to observe and understand them, and the lessons do not devolve into superficial “insect shows.” Deputy curator Lai Sing-shih also states that before docents can lead groups or give guided tours, they must all undergo training at the museum and pass exams that simulate students asking questions and other situations that will occur in practice. This is done in order to avoid dull presentations that simply talk at children rather than engaging with them interactively.
The mission of the Taiwan Insect Museum is to enable the public to learn about insects and grow to respect life and nature in a relaxed, cheerful environment.
Principles over profit
The Taiwan Insect Museum has now been operating for 12 years, during which time it has accompanied many insect-loving youngsters through their childhood years and helped them learn to come to terms with death. “After going on to junior high school some children still come back and ask questions, and tell us about the insects they have seen recently.” Lai says that even as children grow up and have less time for keeping insects, they are still full of enthusiasm for animals. One member of the museum’s current team used to volunteer at the museum when she was in senior high school.
Regarding his approach to running the museum, Ko says: “I’m good at raising insects, not making money.” He isn’t big on commercial strategies, but he does have some principles that he insists on: when teaching students how to rear insects, it’s best to “keep it simple”; and one should not supply unnecessary products simply to earn a profit. “To make money, many traders tell students they should buy liquid feed, but in fact basic humus is sufficient.”
A business magazine has described Ko Hsin-ping as “earning revenues of NT$2 million a year and living on dreams.” When we mention this description Ko falls silent for a while, and a pained expression comes into his eyes. “What they didn’t mention was that I also took out loans to help the museum.” Despite the museum’s many years in the red, for the sake of his ideals he has continued to devote his efforts to “doing something to help animals.” The museum has given a home to many animals given up as pets by members of the public, such as birds and turtles. “They even dump their kids on us,” jokes Ko, explaining that at weekends parents often leave their children in the care of the museum and collect them again in the evening. During this interlude the docents lead the children in sweeping up and feeding the animals, and in making up packs of “beetle jelly” (insect food), but the museum does not charge the parents for looking after the children.
People of the insect kingdom
Taiwan is known as an “insect kingdom.” Not only does it boast an abundance of insect species, but in recent years, due to both fashion and promotion, more and more people have got involved in insect breeding, so that techniques have greatly improved. “The best countries in the world at breeding insects today are Japan and Taiwan,” says Ko. He adds: “There are four species of three-horned rhinoceros beetles [genus Chalcosoma]. I set a new world record for body size for one of them, and last year someone else in Taiwan set a new record for another one.”
Even so, most Taiwanese are still quite scared of insects. How can one break down these fears? Ko says with a laugh: “Every March and April, which is the season for raising beetles according to the elementary school curriculum, we always get elementary teachers asking how they can teach children not to be afraid of insects.” But he has noticed that even the teachers themselves are scared of insects, so why wouldn’t the children be? That being so, he first tries to find out the reasons why the teachers are afraid—is it because they think the insects bite, or their bodies are slimy?—and then dismantles these myths one by one. He doesn’t demand that teachers have the courage to face all insect species, but at least they should have a correct understanding of how to coexist with them.
Another trick that Ko has up his sleeve is to use children to influence adults. His daughter Xianxian often carries her pet bearded dragon lizard (Pogona vitticeps) around with her at exhibitions in the museum, and when she meets people she introduces the friend on her shoulder and asks: “Would you like to hold him?” Whether adults or children, this incongruous scene reduces people’s fear of reptiles, so that they are willing to try touching the animal.
When we finish our interview, Ko Hsin-ping hurries off to attend a meeting. At present, as well as being curator of the Taiwan Insect Museum and running his own business, he also often acts as a consultant, advising on such matters as the planning process for the reconstruction of the Hsinchu Zoo or the curation of insect-related exhibitions. Although this is exhausting work, as long as he remembers the things that have moved him—children’s smiling faces, and the support of his team—his enthusiasm will not wane.
