In Chinese history, exploration expeditions generally returned with both knowledge and culture, resulting in a change of the "self," wrote Jan Hung-tze-praised by Taiwan's explorers for having read more works on exploration than anyone else in Taiwan-in an essay. Modern Western exploration, however, resulted in colonization and the building of empire, and that which was changed was always the "other."
被探險界人士稱許為「全台灣讀過最多探險書籍」的詹宏志即在一篇文章中說道，中國歷史上的探險旅行，多半帶回知識和文化，改變了「自己」；西方近代探險卻輸出了殖民與帝國，改變的往往是「別人」。