Sabah fruit, like a ball of wool, has rows of compact "match sticks" on the peel, which feels the same as touching a freshly shaved head; The banana industry’s "family bucket" of horn bananas, one top ten, guarantees that you can’t eat the second after eating one; The bullet-seed melon that will pop out its seeds when it matures, the sea bottom coconut that is vividly called "woman’s ass fruit", and the shampoo fruit that is said to have a faint violet fragrance even after eating it … … These fruits that you have never heard of once appeared on Yang Xiaoyang’s target list, and now they have become his "trophies". Their photos lie quietly in his computer, and only the owner of the photos, Yang Xiaoyang, knows how much bitterness was behind the "intimate encounter".
Yang Xiaoyang is 30 years old, and the title of "Fruit Hunter" has been with him for a long time. He has eaten more than 600 kinds of fruits, including more than 100 kinds of durian alone. Since he decided to be a "fruit hunter" in 2013, he has almost traveled to hundreds of rainforests in Singapore, Malaysia and other places, photographed hundreds of thousands of plants and witnessed more than 30,000 kinds of plants with his own eyes, accounting for almost 1/10 of the world. Although he seems to be a "fruit encyclopedia" now, in fact, his major in college is far from fruit — — Precision manufacturing.
Being a happy person who "dares to do what he likes" in the netizen’s mouth, Yang Xiaoyang said that the experience of looking for fruit is far from as easy as everyone imagined, and he is not a "rich second generation" who "eats 500,000 fruits at his own expense every year". On top of curiosity, his ultimate goal is to do his best to make some contributions to the protection of plant diversity.
The precision manufacturing engineer plunged into the botanical garden
The interview with Yang Xiaoyang was held in a coffee shop. A few days ago, the position of his circle of friends showed that he had once again "gone down to the rainforest" and "the place was Sumatra, Indonesia". This is obviously not the first close contact with the rainforest of Sumatra. This time, he photographed the Titan konjac (also known as "corpse konjac" because of its stench) that is about to bloom. A few years ago, he took a photo with the flowering Amorphophallus konjac. Facts have proved once again that it is a myth to say that it can "eat people" when it blooms, and it stinks only to attract insects to pollinate it.
Black-rimmed glasses, healthy wheat skin, and backpack. From the outside, Yang Xiaoyang is a typical "engineering male", slightly introverted and unsociable, but his eyes are shining when he talks about plants.
Yang Xiaoyang was born in rural Henan, and was brought up by his grandmother. His childhood without his parents made him somewhat withdrawn, but the flowers and plants in the fields gave him endless happiness. "When I was a child, I was barefoot in the fields, and I especially liked to see weeds. At that time, I felt that the grass was actually very beautiful." Yang Xiaoyang said that when he was very young, he observed that geranium seeds would roll, and later he read in books that it did.
After graduating from high school, Yang Xiaoyang chose to study in Singapore, majoring in precision manufacturing. Witnessed Singapore from "city garden" in the early years to "city in the garden" today, Yang Xiaoyang, who loved plants since childhood, was deeply touched by the progress of urban concept. After school, his favorite thing to do is to visit botanical gardens and nature reserves, which fully satisfies his desire for exploration and builds a basic understanding of plants in Southeast Asia. Stepping into the door of botany, Yang Xiaoyang wandered among them and enjoyed it, "like digging a treasure".
From machinery makers to plants, it seems that there is no boundary. However, in Yang Xiaoyang’s eyes, plants themselves are a very precise series of expressions. Every plant is a product, but its manufacturing is more advanced. It is alive and does not need human drive.
In 2013, Yang Xiaoyang, a college graduate, entered a local precision manufacturing enterprise in Singapore. In that year, Indonesia’s "Ba-burning Movement" got out of control, which led to the worst haze in Singapore’s history. Yang Xiaoyang said that this incident made him sad, because there may be many plant species that have not been discovered by the scientific community on those burned mountains.
After the haze disaster, Yang Xiaoyang quit his job as an engineer and went directly to the rainforest in kalimantan island, Indonesia, where he wanted to find his own direction. After more than ten days of rainforest exploration, he said that he couldn’t walk at all, and there were too many unknown plants waiting for him to discover. After that, he strengthened his belief in doing something for plant protection. Later, south china botanical garden of Chinese Academy of Sciences extended an olive branch to him, and he was determined to devote himself to plant introduction and conservation.
At the end of 2013, when I just returned to China, my friend gave Yang Xiaoyang a book "The Fruit Hunter" by Canadian Adam Reese goellner. Yang Xiaoyang thinks that the theme of this book is very well conceived, but from a professional point of view, there are many artistic processing elements, which are not the truth of science. In addition, there is no "fruit hunter" culture in China, so he decided to focus on the field of fruits from Southeast Asia.
Recover a life from the mouth of a python by "the golden eye of fire"
Since he decided to be a "fruit hunter" in 2013, he has almost traveled all over the important rainforests in Singapore and Malaysia. November of each year to February of the following year is the peak period of fruit hunting. He has to arrange his own itinerary according to the fruit period. He often runs out for a few days and is half dead. He comes back to sort out the information and rest for two days, and then starts again. Tragedy of making a trip in vain happens from time to time. Yang Xiaoyang told reporters that some time ago, he went to the Limeng area of Malaysia to look for a turtle durian. This durian is different from ordinary durian trees. Its fruit grows at the base of the trunk and looks like a group of turtles from a distance. Yang Xiaoyang was particularly excited. He told the local guide not to touch it in advance. He wanted to take a complete photo. However, the ripening season of the tortoise durian happened to be the Spring Festival in China. When he hurried there, all the fruits fell off. "It’s a week late, what a pity!"
Yang Xiaoyang’s "golden eyes" have been trained by drilling in the rainforest all the year round. He can search for his target like a scanner in a large lush rainforest, and even find new plant species in the roadside Woods in a speeding car. Therefore, he is often ridiculed by friends in the same plant circle: "These eyes are worth over 100 million yuan."
With these eyes, he once "picked up" a life. It was when he was looking for paramita in the tropical rain forest of Malaysia. From the sound of stepping on the leaves, he judged that it was a Malayan paramita. When he looked down at the fruit with his camera, an unusual object flashed by his feet. He subconsciously took a step back and looked intently. It was a baby python about three meters long. "I stayed there and didn’t dare to take pictures with the camera. The python was spitting letters and smelling my breath. If I stepped on it, I would be in trouble." Yang Xiaoyang said with a smile.
In addition to pythons, he also met crocodiles, clouded leopards, Sumatran tigers, bears, etc. In Yang Xiaoyang’s view, the most dangerous thing in the rainforest is to meet people — — Real hunters. "Poachers carry guns. They don’t care what I do. They killed me in the rainforest. No one knows." He said that in some countries, before going to inspect, they will report to the local public security bureau, and the police will send people with guns to protect these inspection teams, so that poachers dare not hurt them.
How can we find those target fruits in the vast virgin rainforest? Yang Xiaoyang told reporters that in addition to relying on his years of expertise in plant classification, searching according to the location recorded in plant specimens is also inseparable from the help of local guides. The guides grew up in the forest and knew a lot about all kinds of fruits, but later, it became more and more difficult to find the fruits he was looking for, and even the ancestors of the guides had never seen them. There will also be a situation where the guide stood him up. At that time, there was no time to find a second guide. What should I do? He had to bite the bullet and learn some Malay words in a week, so there was no problem in daily communication.
Another good way to find fruit is to "soak" in the local fruit market, which is another treasure land, where he first saw the loquat awn with lavender-eyed nuts. Another time, in order to find a kind of fruit, we need to have a good relationship with the local indigenous people, and we have to help the indigenous fruit vendors in the traditional market sell fruit. "Business is not bad, and the indigenous vendors next to us are jealous." Yang Xiaoyang enjoys it.
The fruit industry "Shennong" was accidentally poisoned.
Because of "occupational disease", every time Yang Xiaoyang finds a new fruit, he must first take photos carefully. If local laws allow it, seal it with a fresh-keeping bag and take it home, then carefully "dissect" it under the light, observe its seeds and pulp, and then taste it carefully. In most cases, the principle he follows is to try a small amount on the spot after taking photos. "Every time I find a new fruit, that kind of joy will resolve all the hard work on the road." Yang Xiaoyang’s taste buds have been hit again and again — — After eating it, lemons are all sweet mysterious fruits, rice cake fruits with milk flavor that feel "electric shock" when put in your mouth, Elaeagnus mollis Thunb, which is 3,000 times sweeter than sucrose, and snakeskin fruit & HELIP; … Of all, Yang Xiaoyang thinks that the most shocking thing is Jinguangguo. Although it looks like a meteor hammer, the aroma of fruit juice is ten times more delicious than that of strawberries.
Many people yearn for Yang Xiaoyang’s career, calling him "Shennong in the fruit industry", but in fact, he is very cautious about the fruit he has never eaten. In his words, "Otherwise, I may not be able to sit here and have tea and chat with you." In 2015, the world annona group led by him was inspected in a protected area in Guangdong, and experts found the ripe fruit of Guafu wood in the wild, which looked delicious. Experts began to taste it, and Yang Xiaoyang was moved when he saw it. First, he tried it with the tip of his tongue, no problem, and then he ate one. However, after a few minutes, he felt something was wrong, unable to speak, and his throat felt as uncomfortable as if he had been stabbed. Then he poured water and gargled wildly, but fortunately he didn’t eat much. After half an hour, he slowly recovered. Later, he learned that only some people are sensitive to guafu wood.
Shampoo fruit must be on every tropical fruit hunter’s hunting list, and many British nobles are eager to find this kind of fruit. This is a magical fruit. It is said that after eating it, it smells fragrant all over. Even sweating, urinating and farting have a faint violet fragrance. It is only distributed in Java, Indonesia, and is exclusively for the royal family in Indonesia. The fruit hunter who hasn’t eaten shampoo fruit is not a real fruit hunter. Yang Xiaoyang finally found it with great efforts, but because of the previous poisoning experience, he didn’t dare to eat more, just licked a few mouthfuls, went back to the hotel and drank more water. When he felt it, he closed the bathroom door, and he quietly waited for the fragrance to emanate, but he didn’t. "Maybe I ate too little, but I believe the legend about it is true."
Many fruits that Yang Xiaoyang found are rare or even endangered varieties, and many people will ask him where they found them. "I won’t expose these points casually, because I’m not sure what he wants to do, and he may destroy them. Only friends who are like-minded and know the roots will say it. "
Sea coconut is called "woman’s ass fruit" because of its unique shape. It is only produced in Seychelles, and the fruit ripens only once every few years, and now it is endangered. Therefore, even if it is hard to find the trace of sea coconut, Yang Xiaoyang will give up tasting it. Another time, in the rainforest of Sumatra, he found some round fruit Du Ying. The stone inside looked very familiar. It was "King Kong Bodhi", and a six-petal one in China would cost several hundred yuan. After struggling for a little while, he still picked up only a few of the hundreds of fruits that fell from the ground for dissection and souvenir.
There is no mine at home. I thought about opening a Taobao shop to sell durian to earn money.
How many people are eager for durian, how many people avoid it. Yang Xiaoyang is an out-and-out "durian control". He has tasted more than 100 kinds of durians, and even a circle of various durians is placed around the WeChat avatar. Before he went to Singapore to study in 2008, he had never tried this kind of fruit with special taste. The first time I ate durian was in the corner near a small vegetable market. The durian was sold by an uncle who was about 50 years old and had a cigarette in his chest. After wandering in front of the booth for a long time, he carefully asked, "Aren’t durians all smelly?"? Why is this taste fresh and has no smell at all? " Uncle’s words have made him unforgettable so far. "The real durian is not smelly, and only those who don’t understand durian think it stinks."
"A durian is as deep as the sea". Eating durian for the first time made him "happy and want to cry". Since then, he has made more friends who like durian and organized groups to look for delicious durian everywhere. The durian in Singapore couldn’t satisfy these senior durians, so they got a visa and set off for Penang, the legendary durian sanctuary. There, Yang Xiaoyang ate the old tree red shrimp durian, which can last for three months after a bite, as well as the famous Shanba durian, black thorn durian, centipede durian and Zhuge Liang durian & HELIP; …
Yang Xiaoyang said that in fact, everyone’s understanding of durian in China is very shallow. For example, durian with an opening is mature, which is obviously a misunderstanding. Durian’s opening statement shows that it is not fresh. There is a single variety of durian in China, and the most famous one may be the golden pillow durian. If let Yang Xiaoyang score, out of 100 points, Golden Pillow Durian can only get 15-20 points. There are at least 600 varieties of durian in Southeast Asia. Why are so many varieties with better taste rarely seen in China? In Yang Xiaoyang’s view, it is precisely because we have few choices that we have misunderstandings about durian, thinking that golden pillows are the best. When durian growers see this situation, they will expand their planting, and gradually other varieties of durian will become less and less.
Yang Xiaoyang wants to write a monograph on durian, which has not been done in China. His original intention is to let more people realize the diversity and beauty of durian through popular science. He doesn’t want to see more and more durian varieties die out because of the market. For the public, what we can do is to understand the diversity of durian, so as to choose independently and guide the market. After that, everyone will know more about the diversity of fruits, vegetables, food and so on, which will invisibly urge the public to protect the diversity of the whole plant kingdom. This is the mission behind the "fruit hunter" and the ultimate goal he has been pursuing.
After Yang Xiaoyang’s experience went through a hot search, many people questioned it. As the media said, "Looking for fruit costs hundreds of thousands a year at their own expense". Is this afraid that there is no mine at home? He told reporters that he is separated from the "rich second generation" by ten Java islands, and the cost of being a "fruit hunter" is quite high. If all of them are taken by themselves, there are indeed hundreds of thousands. But many times, the search for fruit is linked with scientific investigation, and the local scientific investigation needs a plant taxonomist like him, which can bear a large part of the expenses. He even thought about opening a Taobao shop and selling durians to make money when it could not be maintained. In his first popular science book "Fruit Hunter in Southeast Asia", Yang Xiaoyang wrote: "I fantasize that I turned into a durian tree at night, standing proudly in the vast tropical rain forest, quietly watching the vicissitudes of life."
Text/reporter Chen Pin
The above official price only represents the price on April 22, 2025. If there is any change, please refer to official website.
