Chen Shu-chu: A Taitung Vegetable Vendor's Charitable Life — Tens of Millions Donated From Fifty Years of Vegetable Money

30-second overview: Chen Shu-chu, born 1950, vegetable vendor at Taitung Central Market. At thirteen, she dropped out of school to sell vegetables after her mother died in childbirth. Over more than fifty years, she donated tens of millions of New Taiwan Dollars to schools, orphanages, and hospitals. In 2010 she appeared on TIME magazine's list of the 100 Most Influential People in the World; director Ang Lee wrote the nominating profile. When she went to New York to receive the award, she said: "I'm just a vegetable seller."¹

Her Mother Died on the Way to the Hospital

In 1963, in Taitung, Chen Shu-chu's mother was carrying her seventh child and had a difficult labor. The family could not raise the deposit the hospital required. On the way to the hospital, the mother and her unborn child both died.²

That year Chen Shu-chu was thirteen, having just graduated from Taitung Renai Elementary School. She did not continue her education — she took over her mother's vegetable stall at the market and began supporting four younger brothers and two younger sisters.³ A few years earlier, her eleven-year-old brother had fallen ill; also because the family had no money for medical care, it was school teachers who organized a fundraiser to cover the medical expenses.⁴

Too poor even to see a doctor without others' help — that memory later drove all of her donations.

The Math at the Vegetable Stall

Chen Shu-chu's stall is in the Taitung Central Market. Every day she was at work before 4 a.m. — the earliest to arrive and the last to leave in the market. To make sure she woke up on time, she slept on the floor. She took one day off per year.⁴

The stall was not large, but the location was good — when the market was first set up and lots were drawn, her family drew a good spot. She later developed a business model: supplying vegetables to the military garrison on Green Island, because shipping direct from Taitung was cheaper than transporting from elsewhere.⁴ This gave her stable income, though still a vegetable vendor's income.

Her money was saved up one bunch of vegetables at a time, without a single windfall or shortcut. She spent almost nothing on herself: no eating out, no new clothes, living in an old building near the market. What she saved, she had other uses for.

A Chronicle of Donations

In 1993, her father and second brother died in succession. Chen Shu-chu donated NT$1 million to Fo Guang College (now Fo Guang University). That was the first time she drew from her savings.⁵

From 1996 onward, she began donating NT$36,000 per year to the Elijah Children's Home in Taitung, sponsoring three orphaned children. Later she also made a lump-sum donation of NT$1 million to the institution.⁶

In 1997, she donated NT$1 million to her alma mater Renai Elementary School, establishing an emergency relief scholarship. In 2005, she donated an additional NT$4.5 million to build a library.⁷ She chose her alma mater because, when she was young and her family was poor, school teachers had helped her brother. "Others helped me — I have to pay it back" — her logic was that direct.⁴

By the time TIME magazine noticed her in 2010, she had cumulatively donated close to NT$10 million.¹

But she did not stop.

In 2012, she received the Ramon Magsaysay Award of the Philippines (sometimes called the Nobel Peace Prize of Asia), with a prize of $50,000. She donated the entire prize to Taitung Mackay Memorial Hospital.⁸

On October 10, 2018, she donated two insurance policies with a current value of NT$16 million, entrusting Taitung Mackay and Taitung Christian Hospital to establish the "Chen Shu-chu Medical Poverty and Cancer Patient Care Fund."⁹

On August 28, 2021 — her mother's death anniversary — she donated another NT$15 million in insurance policies to the Taitung County Government, designating it for the establishment of a "Childbirth and Emergency Assistance Fund" to help economically disadvantaged mothers.¹⁰ She was choked with emotion at the press conference: "After 59 years, I have finally fulfilled this wish."¹¹

Fifty-nine years earlier, her mother had died on the way to the hospital.

A Vegetable Vendor on the World Stage

In April 2010, TIME magazine published its annual list of the 100 Most Influential People in the World; Chen Shu-chu ranked eighth in the "Heroes" category — alongside Barack Obama and clean-energy entrepreneurs.¹ Director Ang Lee personally wrote the nominating profile. That same year, Forbes magazine named her one of its Asia Heroes of Philanthropy.¹² Reader's Digest awarded her the 4th Asia Heroes Award.⁵

When notified of the award, she did not know what TIME magazine was. Going to New York to receive the award was her first time leaving the country. She wore her ordinary vegetable-selling clothes and told reporters: "I'm just a vegetable seller — I don't know why they chose me."¹

These honors did not change a single day of her life. Back in Taitung, she was at the vegetable stall at 4 a.m. as usual.

The 2012 Ramon Magsaysay Award, the 2018 naming of asteroid 278986 after her⁵, and the 2025 honorary doctorate from National Taitung University¹³ — every time she stepped onto a stage to receive recognition, she returned to the stall as quickly as possible.

Her Body Finally Gave Out

In February 2018, Chen Shu-chu collapsed in front of her stall and was rushed to the hospital for surgery.⁵ Doctors told her to rest; she lay down for a month and then wanted to return to selling vegetables. But this time her body did not let her have her way — combined with her brother also falling ill and needing care, she officially closed her stall in 2018.⁴

She had sold vegetables for more than fifty years; the stall later became a meat stall.

In retirement she still lives in Taitung, still caring about people who need help. The NT$15 million donation in 2021 was completed after she had already retired. She says: "Money can't be taken at birth or taken at death. My National Pension is enough for me — the extra should go to those who need it."¹⁰

A Simple Arithmetic

Chen Shu-chu's story is often packaged as "a touching act of kindness," but when unpacked, it is actually a math problem: if a person saves a little each day and persists for fifty years, how much accumulates?

The answer is tens of millions.

The deeper question is: why would a vegetable vendor do this? Her answer has never changed — because when she was thirteen years old, her mother died on the way to the hospital, and she could do nothing. Fifty years later, she finally had the ability to make sure other people's mothers would not face the same thing.¹¹

In 2025, National Taitung University awarded her an honorary doctorate. She spoke at the ceremony: "Thank you all for not looking down on a roadside vegetable stall."¹³

Further Reading

• Taitung Central Market — Chen Shu-chu's vegetable stall of fifty years; a representative site of Taitung's grassroots economy
• Taiwan's Philanthropic Culture — From Master Cheng Yen and Tzu Chi to Chen Shu-chu the vegetable vendor: two samples of Taiwanese folk philanthropy
• Education in Taiwan's Remote Areas — The main destinations of Chen Shu-chu's donations over the years: long-term support for libraries, schools, and orphanages

References