Asian of the Year: The Selfless Vegetable Seller

Most of us work only to support ourselves or our families. The money that we make is usually spent more on our own wants rather than to support others… how often do we encounter someone that would work for the sake of others?

The article below is about a lady named Ms Chen Shu-Chu, a humble vegetable seller in Taiwan. Her mother died when she was young, and her brother had a chronic illness that dragged on for a year before he finally passed away. During that period, the family funds were depleted. With the help of a schoolteacher, more funds were raised but that, however, could not help much…

Understanding the difficulties of being financially constrained through personal experience, along with the motivation to repay the kindness of others who have assisted her family, Ms Chen worked at the vegetable stall that her father had left her, selling vegetables for NT30 a bundle, and started accumulating money with the intention of donating it.

Her donations, however big or small, would have been a very good deed. However, it was the amount she donated that caught the attention of the public. She has donated about NT$10 million… which is equivalent to a little over RM1,000,000!

How did she raise all that money just by selling vegetables? She says that it was by leading a simple life and saving. She gets by with a place to sleep and simple food to eat.

Refusing to accept extra tips or donations, sponsorship or offers, she donates a substantial portion of her hard-earned money towards various charities, including the Fo Guang Shan temple, the building of a school library as well as an emergency relief fund to her old school to help students who are in need of money.

She works 16 hours a day managing the stall and says that she does it all happily. She says that she doesn’t even see her donations as anything special, and that she thought it was a normal thing to do. She is as surprised at the reaction from the public, as the public is about the amount that she has donated.

Because of her selflessness, she is one of the 48 nominees for the 2010 Most Influential Person by TIME magazine.

She inspires many others around her community to do the same as she did.

It is amazing how a single person can ‘survive’ through that amount of time and effort. Many of us already complain with 8 hours that we work daily let alone 16 hours of work per day!! And the most amazing part is, she is actually happy doing all this: waking up at 3am and preparing the stall, carrying the vegetables around, arranging them, then packing them up EVERY SINGLE DAY for the last 20-30 years…

It is INCREDIBLE to see how far doing actions with the right motivation can bring us to. She is the same as Mother Teresa, in the sense that they both spent their lives for others and only keep a basic, meager amount to sustain themselves. These people are the light for people around them as they inspire others to be selfless as well. It is indeed a rare sight to see a person who is able to be selfless at such a deep level in many ways. We definitely need more Ms Chens in this world… the world needs more selfless Bodhisattvas like her to inspire others…

Do take a look at the article written about Ms Chen Shu Chu on Reader’s Digest. I have also added a video about her story… does her life inspire you?

Tsem Rinpoche

Or view the video on the server at: http://video.tsemtulku.com/videos/chen-shu-chu-vegetable-seller.flv

(Extracted from: http://lifeisreallybeautiful.com/china/vegetable-seller-chen-shu-chu-is-asian-of-the-year/)

The Generous Vegetable Seller

by Esther Liang (published in the December 2010 issue of Reader’s Digest)

After the morning hustle and bustle, the atmosphere at Taitung county’s Central Market quietens as every stall shuts for the day and their owners return to the comfort of their homes.

A lone lamp shines on a vegetable stall. With head bowed, Ms Chen Shu-chu silently sorts out the vegetable leaves as she waits for the occasional afternoon customer.

Decades of hard work have caused the fingers on her right hand to curl and joints to swell; her feet have deformed slightly.

Ms Chen leads her life with a daily routine. Waking up at three in the morning, she makes her way to the vegetable wholesaler and sets up her stall, which she tends till seven or eight in the evening.

Being the first to arrive and last to leave, the other stall owners have fondly given her the title of “market manager”.

In the dark and damp market, Ms Chen, nearing her 60s, holds the stall her father left her dearly. Yuan-Jin Vegetables is her everything.

With her vegetables selling at “a bundle for NT$30, three bundles for NT$50″, she earns only marginal profits.

Yet, her frugality has allowed her to donate about NT$10 million (4321,550) towards various charitable causes, including helping schools, orphanages and poor children.

The selfless generosity of a woman with such humble income has placed her under the international spotlight.

In March, Forbes magazine named her one of 48 outstanding philanthropists from the Asia-Pacific region. A month later, Time magazine selected the year’s top 100 influential people and she emerged under the Heroes of Philanthropy category.

Fellow Taiwanese and Oscar- winning director Lee Ang wrote her entry personally. “Money is worthy only if given to those in need,” he quoted Ms Chen. He also wrote: “Amazing, but of all she has given away, her greatest gift is leading by example.”

KINDNESS BEGETS KINDNESS

Despite the honour of receiving the Time award in New York, gaining global recognition, and a personal meeting with President Ma Ying-jeou, all Ms Chen really cares about is her vegetable stall.

If not for President Ma and the Foreign Minister personally convincing her to go, she would not have agreed to visit New York, as she felt that “this is not a competition and I did not win anything”.

Amid the frenzy of applying for a passport and preparing for the visit, her main concern was that her regular customers would not get their vegetables.

Ms Chen has become a celebrity in Taitung county. The local authorities decorated her stall with congratulatory posters and banners hailing her as the Pride of Taitung and the Model of Philanthropy.

There are fans who turn up at the stall with a vegetable basket and a camera, hoping for a picture with Ms Chen.

Despite all the attention, she remains humble. “I have done nothing extraordinary and anyone who wants to can do it. There are many other charitable people; we just don’t know about them,” she said. Ms Chen, who is unmarried, added: “I do not place great importance on money. When I donate to help others, I feel at peace and happy, and I can sleep well at night.”

She also feels for the poor, having experienced hardship in her younger days.

Born in 1950, Ms Chen lost her mother after completing her primary-school education. Her mother was admitted to hospital because of difficulties in labour and the family had to pay an insurance of NT$5,000 before medical attention could be granted.

Ms Chen saw her father asking their neighbours for money, but it was too late to save her mother. The eldest daughter in the family, Ms Chen had to grow up overnight. She gave up her studies and dedicated her life to helping at the vegetable stall.

When she was 18, her younger brother fell sick and the illness dragged on for over a year, gradually depleting the family’s savings.

Doctors suggested that the family send her brother to Taiwan National University Hospital, but they could not afford the fees.

Mr Huang Shun-zhong, a teacher at Ren-ai Primary School, started a donation drive. Unfortunately, her brother could not be saved.

After experiencing the kindness bestowed upon her family, Ms Chen made up her mind to help the poor once she was able.

When her father died 17 years ago, Ms Chen, a devoted Buddhist, generously donated NT$1 million to Fo Guang Shan Monastery.

In 2000, she donated NT$1 million to her alma mater, Ren-ai Primary School, to set up an Emergency Relief Fund to help poor children obtain financial help.

SIMPLE LIFE WITHOUT LUXURIES

Assisting in the setting up and maintenance of the fund is Mr Li Guo-rong, who teaches Ms Chen’s nephew.

In 2001, Mr Li had a plan to build a library for the school and estimated the cost to be between NT$4 million and NT$5 million.

When he approached Ms Chen, in the hope that she might contribute NT$50,000, Li was shocked when she said she would fund the entire project.

The school was sceptical, but Ms Chen was determined.

In May 2005, the two-storey library was completed and named Chen Shu-chu Library in honour of the “Vegetable Market heroine” alumnus. She had donated NT$4.5 million.

Ms Chen’s ability to donate such large sums of money has led many to ask: How can a mere vegetable seller earn so much?

“Spend only what you need, and you’ll be able to save up a lot of money!” said Ms Chen.

Since 1996, she has donated NT$36,000 to help three children in the Kids Alive International organisation.

To achieve this, she explained that she empties her loose change into three little cardboard boxes at home every night.

“This is a simple act that anyone can do, isn’t it?” she said.

Ms Chen leads a very simple life without any luxuries. She does not have any desire for material gain nor any form of enjoyment.

Work, she said, is her enjoyment. “I love my work. If I didn’t, would I be able to work 16 hours a day?”

All she needs is food and a place to sleep. Everything else is a luxury. She does not buy expensive clothes as “I do not socialise much, hence, there is no need for such beautiful clothes. The clothes from the roadside stalls are good enough for me, and, even then, I like to bargain”.

Her daily meals cost less than NT$100: a bowl of vegetarian rice and a bowl of noodles for NT$55. Freeze whatever that cannot be finished, spend another NT$20 on a can of gluten and add that to the rice with some hot water.

“This becomes porridge and is very tasty,” she said.

HER HAPPINESS PRINCIPLE

She also sleeps on the hard floor, a habit from her younger days when she started working at the vegetable stall.

The comfort of her warm bed made getting up early to go to the wholesaler very difficult, especially during the cold winter months. Hence Ms Chen made up her mind to sleep on the cold floor, where she would not run the risk of being late.

Has business improved after winning the award? “Business is as usual,” she said. “I still need to sell my vegetables. Not much has changed.”

Advertisers have approached her to film commercials; financial managers have offered to manage her finances and other well-wishers have offered to donate money. She rejects these advances politely.

“It is easy to return borrowed money, but difficult to return a favour,” she said.

“I have to be very careful in handling money matters,” she added. Even when customers tip her, she refuses to accept.

“Buying from my stall is already a form of support,” she explained.

The only commercial Ms Chen was willing to take on was for the Bureau of National Health Insurance, in memory of her beloved mother. She requested all shoots be done beside her stall so as not to affect her business.

The only payment she was willing to accept was a black T-shirt given by the Bureau.

Since her return from New York, Ms Chen has been working even longer hours. She has a new goal: To collect NT$10 million to set up a Chen Shu-chu Bursary aimed at helping poor children pay for school fees and medical bills, things she could not afford as a child.

“All I need is to sell a few more vegetables, save a little more money, in addition to a number of insurance policies that are near the end of their term. A lot of people are also willing to donate. I am sure there won’t be any problems,” she said.

Mr Li, who treats Ms Chen like a sister, said that setting up the bursary is actually a good way to let her retire from selling vegetables and start influencing society with her reputation, in the hope that there will be more generous “Chen Shu-chus”.

As for Ms Chen, she said: “My philosophy in life is simple: If doing something makes you worried, then it must be a wrong thing. If it makes you happy, then you must have done the right thing. What others say is not important.”

She is content with what she has and feels that as long as she “lives a life she wishes for and does the things she wants, that is good enough”.

Chen was born to impoverished parents with eight children. The family survived on the parents’ meager income as vegetable vendors.

After her mother died, she took over her parents’ business, and at the age of 13, she became the youngest vendor in Taitung City’s Central Market, selling vegetables ever since for nearly five decades.

She had never married, although the opportunity presented itself in her early 20s. Her brother told Taiwan’s Liberty Times that their father asked her to postpone her wedding to support the family until her younger siblings finished their schooling, and Chen’s sweetheart eventually married someone else. From then, working at her stall in the market to sell vegetables became the main priority of her life.

Her routine consists of getting up at 2:30 a.m. to purchase vegetables from a wholesale market, opening her business between 4 a.m. and 5 a.m., and closing up shop at around 9 p.m.

She said because she had been helped by others in the past, she vowed to also help the poor. She says that’s how she has found happiness, and even when physically challenged, she perseveres to sell vegetables at the market.

“Money serves its purpose only when it is used for those who need it,” she said in a newspaper account.

When asked why she was so generous in donating her hard-earned money, she said, “I accumulate virtue instead of wealth. Life is short, and you don’t know when you will die. I don’t have a son, so what would I do with all the money I have saved? I might as well just do good deeds and accumulate virtue.”

Although Chen has become one of Taiwan’s hottest media stars since she was chosen as a Time magazine 2010 role model, success has not spoiled her. She has asked the media not to hang around, as she wants to get back to her usual routine of selling vegetables in the market right away.

Chen’s generous giving has set off a nationwide trend, encouraging others of small means to donate to charity.

“The point of Chen’s story is that all of sudden many people found that even though they may not be rich, their tiny but persistent small donations may come as a great help to some people,” said Hu Yu-fang of United Way.

A former soldier Hu Shou-hung, inspired by Chen, has given away his life’s savings of $30,000 to a charity that supports orphan children of soldiers killed in action. Hu is 88 years old, explaining to reporters that he no longer needs the money.

“Chen is like a seed,” said Phyllis Weng, a senior social worker of the Taiwan Fund for Children and Families in the central Taiwan city of Taichung.

“It has taken deep root in the hearts of many people. Her influence will be far-reaching.”

Chen Shu-chu’s story has great lessons for all of us. It is possible to save a large sum of money even on a very modest income if you know how to manage your finances. It is possible for a single person to make a huge impact on the world. Money serves its purpose only when it is used for those who need it.

I am very inspired and humbled by this vegetable seller’s frugality, generosity and most of all her humanity. Her spirit and kindness is what we human beings should aspire to.

Thank you, Chen Shu-chu, for helping to show the way.