蜜桃工作室

Every day for the past four decades, 60-year-old Chen Shu-Jiu wakes up at 2:30 a.m. to set up her stall at the busy central market in Taitung, a county in eastern Taiwan. With her fresh merchandise鈥攁bout a hundred varieties of vegetables鈥攖owering over her, she works until dark.

After a backbreaking day at the market, Chen returns to her modest home and listens to Buddhist teachings on the radio before getting some shuteye.

By living a Spartan lifestyle, Chen has been able through the years to give away some NT$7 million (US$320,000) out of her modest earnings to various charities engaged in early childhood care and children鈥檚 education.

Chen鈥檚 tremendous generosity has been celebrated internationally. She has been acclaimed as an inspiration and a role model, traveled to many places, walked the red carpet and met VIPs, like Taiwan President Ma Ying-jeou and former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin.

鈥楯ust a vegetable seller鈥�

On Friday, Chen accepted the Ramon Magsaysay Award, conferred on people who address issues of human development in Asia with courage and creativity and make contributions that have transformed their societies for the better.

Chen and the five other laureates for 2012 received their awards in ceremonies at the Philippine International Convention Center in Pasay City.

But the unassuming Chen remains indifferent to the accolades she has received for her philanthropy since she was first featured in a local paper two years ago, maintaining that she鈥檚 just an ordinary vegetable seller.

As much as possible, she doesn鈥檛 want to be away too long from her market stall, which she took over after her father died some 20 years ago.

鈥淚 don鈥檛 feel like I鈥檓 a hero or a great person whatsoever because I don鈥檛 feel like I鈥檝e done much. I just feel like I鈥檓 still that vegetable vendor at the market,鈥� Chen said, speaking through a translator.

Pure altruism

But to others, especially those who have been touched by her unselfishness, she has done great things worthy of emulation and praise.

In electing Chen to receive this year鈥檚 prize, the Ramon Magsaysay Foundation said it 鈥渞ecognizes the pure altruism of her giving, which reflects a deep, consistent, quiet compassion, and has transformed the lives of the numerous Taiwanese she has unselfishly helped.鈥�

Over the past two decades, she has donated almost all her personal earnings to a Buddhist monastery, Fo Guang Shan, to enable it to finance a school, and to an orphanage, Kids Alive International, a Christian mission devoted to the rescue of orphans and vulnerable children, to provide them with food and education and see to their spiritual and emotional needs.

Through her donations to her alma mater, Ren-Ai Elementary School, she has also helped finance the establishment of a fully equipped library.

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Live a simple life

But how can one simple vegetable seller, who makes marginal profits, give so much to others?

For Chen, the answer is simple: Live only on the most basic things.

She said that NT$100 (about US$3) was all she needed every day for food and other essentials. The rest, she gives away.

鈥淚f you keep too much money in your pocket, you get a lot of temptation to spend it [on things you don鈥檛 need],鈥� she said with a chuckle.

Even before receiving the $50,000 cash prize that came with the Ramon Magsaysay certificate and a medallion bearing the likeness of the late Philippine President, she has already decided to donate the prize money to a general hospital in Taitung for the construction of an intensive care unit.

Upon her return to her country, she will personally make the donation in Taipei, where the main branch of Mackay Memorial Hospital is located. It is the only tertiary teaching hospital in Taitung.

An early life lesson

As the eldest daughter of vegetable vendors who worked hard to put food on the table for a family of eight, Chen learned the value of perseverance and self-denial early in life.

She was 13 years old when she came face to face with what it meant to have so little in life.

In 1964, her mother developed complications from a pregnancy that sent her father desperately knocking on neighbors鈥� doors for money for her treatment. Whatever her father was able to raise was not enough to save her mother.

After her mother鈥檚 death, Chen had to stop schooling to help her father sell vegetables at the market. She had just finished Grade 6 then.

鈥淎t that time, I felt like people looked down on the poor and that money was very important and very useful so I felt I must do everything I can to earn more money,鈥� she said.

With five brothers and sisters to help support, she didn鈥檛 hesitate to give up her education.

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Unexpected act of generosity

鈥淚 didn鈥檛 really think about myself at the time. All I knew was I had to help out in every way I could in order to provide for my family because I had a lot of younger brothers and sisters that I needed to provide for,鈥� said Chen, who has never married.

Five years later, another tragedy struck the family. One of her younger brothers caught a disease that depleted even more the household鈥檚 meager finances. The family could not afford to pay for the brother鈥檚 medical care.

Having learned about the plight of Chen鈥檚 family through a local newspaper, her teachers and classmates at her old school initiated a fund drive to help with her brother鈥檚 medical treatment. But the treatment was just too costly. The donations failed to save her brother鈥檚 life.

Chen keeps close to her heart that unexpected act of generosity shown by her teachers and classmates. She draws strength and inspiration everyday from that episode in her life.

鈥淚t鈥檚 because I received help when I was young so now I always think about others before I think about myself,鈥� she said.