When a local Chinese-language newspaper held a poll recently, which begged its' readers the question; "if you could live the life of another individual, then who would you choose to be?" A majority of people opted to be Peter Hsui (眭澔平).
Hsui is not as talented as Ang Lee (李安), as rich as Wang Yung-ching (王永慶) or as fashionable as Jay Chou (周杰倫), but his lifestyle is, according to the poll, the one that most people in Taiwan envy over everybody else's.
He's published 29 books -- five of which were bestsellers -- and appeared on and/or produced a total of 31 albums. He's been the recipient of five Golden Melody Awards (金曲獎) and four Golden Bell Awards (金鐘獎) and, when he's not receiving golden trophies he's often giving them away as the host.
His position as freelance historian means he is regular guest on TV and radio chat shows and, as he holds a PhD from the UK's University of Leeds, he's in demand as a guest speaker at universities up and down the country.
While all these achievements may go some way to explaining why so many people want to be him, it is in fact Hsui's life away from the limelight that is really the envy of so many. Hsui is one of the most traveled Taiwanese nationals of all time and he's got something to show for every port of call he's made over the past 15 years.
"I think people wanted to be me because I go traveling a lot and don't have to go to an office every day," Hsui said. "I reckon people think that my life is one big adventure."
And a mighty adventure it certainly has been, as is evident on entering Hsui's five-story apartment block in downtown Taipei, which is a cross between walking into Aladdin's cave and entering a disorderly museum.
From the ground floor to the fourth floor every room is packed wall-to-wall with an assortment of paraphernalia ranging from 100 year-old Russian icons to Amazonian tribal costumes made of bark and the huge fossilized head of a long-dead dinosaur. Along with the more eye-catching pieces there are plenty of other knickknacks of all shapes and sizes crammed into every nook and cranny of his apartment.
The most striking of all of Hsui's "souvenirs" is the 1,000 year-old Bible from Ethiopia, the pages of which are made of sheep skin and the text of which is handwritten using inks made from plant extract. In total Hsui has over 40,000 artifacts in his private collection and there's a story behind each and every one of them.
"You could ask me about any of the objects in my collection and I'd tell you how and where it came into my possession," said Hsui. "They're like souvenirs, but instead of purchasing them from a tourist shops I've been lucky enough to have been able to obtain all of them from people I've met during my travels."
Until 1990 Hsui worked as a journalist for TTV's (
"I already had the nickname `reporter of disasters.' I'd either travel to hot spots in order to report on horrific events already underway or I'd got somewhere and something untoward would happen," he said. "I thought I'd be covering some boring financial debate and was looking forward to some peace and quiet."
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