Chen Shu-chu (陳樹菊), the vegetable vendor who made last year’s Time magazine list of the world’s 100 most influential people for her acts of philanthropy, donated NT$1 million (US$33,000) to the Red Cross Society on Monday to help families in emergencies.
Chen, a native of Taitung County, took advantage of her trip to Taipei to attend the Double Ten National Day celebrations to present the donation to C.V. Chen (陳長文), president of the Red Cross Society of the Republic of China, the charity said in a statement.
Of the money, NT$800,000 was from royalties on sales of her biography and the rest came from savings from vegetable sales, according to Chu Ya-chun (朱亞君), head of Aquarius Publishing Co (寶瓶文化), which published Chen Shu-chu’s biography last year.
Photo: Fang Pin-chao, Taipei Times
Chu told the Chinese-language United Daily News (UDN) that the vegetable vendor’s biography had sold well, with a combined 30,000 copies of the Thai version and traditional and simplified-character Chinese versions having been sold to date.
“She decided to donate all the royalties to charitable causes and asked me to help her contact the Red Cross Society,” Chu was quoted as saying in a UDN report yesterday.
Chen Shu-chu chose to work with the Red Cross Society after meeting C.V. Chen for the first time at a recent charity event.
“She told me she felt Chen is a reliable person and decided to have his organization help deal with her donation,” Chu said.
During their meeting on Monday, the Red Cross Society president asked Chen Shu-chu whether she was happy selling vegetables.
She answered that it was a “serious, painstaking” job.
“But I tend to feel great pleasure every time I donate money to help needy people. I usually sleep very well on those days,” the 62-year-old philanthropist said.
Praising her as the first glow of sunrise on the Republic of China’s centennial, C.V. Chen said he hoped all Red Cross Society volunteers would share her sense of giving.
Chen Shu-chu has donated more than NT$10 million to charity programs, including building a library for her alma mater and helping orphaned children and disadvantaged families. She had originally planned to set up a foundation to pool resources to help more -people, but changed her mind.
“To avoid unnecessary hassles, I returned donations from other people and gave up the idea of setting up a foundation of my own. I decided to continue my regular job, save money and donate my savings as I see fit,” she said.
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