Chen Shu-chu: A Taitung Vegetable Vendor Who Donated Tens of Millions from Fifty Years of Market Earnings

30-Second Overview: Chen Shu-chu, born 1950, vegetable vendor at Taitung Central Market. At age 13 she dropped out of school to sell vegetables after her mother died in childbirth; over the next fifty-plus years she cumulatively donated tens of millions of dollars to schools, orphanages, and hospitals. In 2010 she appeared on TIME Magazine's list of the 100 Most Influential People in the World, with director Ang Lee writing her citation. When she went to New York to accept the award, she said: "I'm just a vegetable vendor." ¹

Mother Died on the Way to the Hospital

1963, Taitung. Chen Shu-chu's mother was pregnant with her seventh child and suffered obstructed labor. The family couldn't scrape together the deposit the hospital required; en route to the hospital, the mother and the fetus both died. ²

That year Chen Shu-chu was 13, having just graduated from Taitung Ren'ai Elementary School. She did not continue her education, taking over her mother's vegetable stall at the market and beginning to support four younger brothers and two younger sisters. ³ A few years earlier, an 11-year-old brother had fallen ill; again because there was no money for a doctor, it was only a teacher-organized fundraiser that covered the medical expenses. ⁴

So poor that seeing a doctor depended on others' help — this memory later drove all her donations.

The Mathematics of a Vegetable Stall

Chen Shu-chu's stall was at Taitung Central Market. She started work at 4 a.m. every day, the first to arrive and the last to leave. To ensure she woke on time, she slept on the floor. She took only one day off per year. ⁴

The stall was small but well-positioned — when the market opened and stalls were allocated by lottery, her family drew a good spot. She later developed a business model: supplying vegetables to the garrison on Green Island, because direct delivery from Taitung was cheaper than shipping from elsewhere. ⁴ This stabilized her income, but it was still a vegetable vendor's income.

Her money was saved vegetable by vegetable, with no windfalls or shortcuts. She spent almost nothing on herself — no dining out, no new clothes, living in an old house near the market. What she saved, she put to other uses.

Donation Chronicle

1993: Her father and second brother passed away in succession. Chen Shu-chu donated NT$1 million to Fo Guang Shan Buddhist College (now Fo Guang University). It was the first time she took out her savings for donation. ⁵

1996 onward: She began donating NT$36,000 annually to the Anisef Children's Home in Taitung, sponsoring three children. Later she made a one-time donation of NT$1 million to the same institution. ⁶

1997: She donated NT$1 million to her alma mater, Ren'ai Elementary School, establishing an emergency relief scholarship. 2005: She donated another 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 must pay it back" — her logic was that direct. ⁴

By the time TIME Magazine took notice in 2010, she had already cumulatively donated nearly NT$10 million. ¹

But she didn't stop.

2012: She received the Ramon Magsaysay Award (often called Asia's Nobel Peace Prize) from the Philippines, with a prize of US$50,000. She donated the entire amount to Taitung Mackay Memorial Hospital. ⁸

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 Aid for the Poor and Cancer Patient Care Fund." ⁹

August 28, 2021 — her mother's death anniversary — she donated another NT$15 million insurance policy to the Taitung County Government, designating the establishment of a "Childbirth and Emergency Relief Fund" specifically to help economically disadvantaged parturients. ¹⁰ At the press conference she choked up: "Waited 59 years, finally fulfilled this wish." ¹¹

59 years earlier, her mother had died on the way to the hospital.

A Vegetable Vendor on the World Stage

April 2010: TIME Magazine announced its annual 100 Most Influential People in the World; Chen Shu-chu ranked eighth in the "Heroes" category — alongside Obama and clean energy entrepreneurs. ¹ Director Ang Lee personally wrote her citation. That same year, Forbes Asia named her an Asian Hero of Philanthropy. ¹² Reader's Digest awarded her the 4th Asian Hero Award. ⁵

When notified of the award, she didn't know what TIME Magazine was. The trip to New York to accept it was her first time abroad. She wore her usual vegetable-selling clothes and told reporters: "I'm just a vegetable vendor, don't know why they picked me." ¹

These honors changed nothing about her days. Back in Taitung, she was at her stall at 4 a.m. as usual.

The 2012 Magsaysay Award, the 2018 naming of asteroid 278986 after her ⁵, the 2025 honorary doctorate from National Taitung University ¹³ — every time she stood on an award stage, she returned to her vegetable stall as quickly as possible.

Body Could No Longer Keep Up

February 2018: Chen Shu-chu collapsed in front of her stall and was rushed to hospital for surgery. ⁵ Doctors ordered rest; after a month in bed she wanted to return to selling vegetables. But this time her body wouldn't allow it — compounded by her brother also falling ill and needing care, she formally closed her stall in 2018. ⁴

After selling vegetables for over fifty years, the stall later became a meat stall.

After retirement she still lived in Taitung, still cared for those needing help. The 2021 NT$15 million donation was made after retirement. She said: "Money you don't bring at birth, don't take at death. The national pension is enough for me; the surplus goes to those who need it." ¹⁰

A Simple Arithmetic

Chen Shu-chu's story is often packaged as "touching good deeds," but broken down, it's actually an arithmetic problem: if a person saves a little each day and persists for fifty years, how much can they accumulate?

The answer: tens of millions.

The deeper question: why would a vegetable vendor do this? Her answer never changed — because at age 13, her mother died on the way to the hospital, and she could do nothing. Fifty years later, she finally had the capacity to ensure other mothers wouldn't meet the same fate. ¹¹

2025: National Taitung University conferred an honorary doctorate on her. In her acceptance speech she said: "Thank you all for not looking down on me for selling vegetables at a roadside stall." ¹³

Further Reading

• Taiwan Market Culture and Traditional Markets — The Taitung Central Market where Chen Shu-chu ran a stall for fifty years lives within this traditional market ecosystem
• Taiwan Volunteer Culture and Civic Participation — From Master Cheng Yen's Tzu Chi to Chen Shu-chu's vegetable stall, two samples of Taiwan's civil-sector philanthropy
• Taiwan Rural Education — The main destinations of Chen Shu-chu's donations over the years: the long-term support context of libraries, schools, and orphanages

References