I have a habit of talking about people who put us to shame. I had wanted to feature a charitable foreigner for my documentary but that didn't happen. There're so many 'less fortunate' people who are doing more than us in making the world a better place.
Anyway, I read about this lady in this month's Readers Digest. She is amazing. Well of course she had to be in order to earn her title of being the 2010 Asian of The Year.
Chen Shu-Chu is a humble vegetable seller in Tai-tung County. Every day, she wakes up at 3 in the morning to obtain her vegetables from the wholesaler. Then she brings them to her stall which she would tend for 7 to 8 hours. All the hard work has made her body weak, but she still presses on. In the market, she is the first to arrive and last to leave. Her neighbours in the market jokingly call her the market manager.
But that isn't the extraordinary thing about her. By selling vegetables in her humble stall each day and earning marginal profits, Chen Shu-Chu has by far donated a hefty NT$10 million ($321,550) to various charitable organisations. That's many times more than what an average Singaporean would have donated in his/her lifetime.
Where in the world does she get all that money to donate? Believe it or not, it is purely attributed to her frugality. Chen lives a very simple life without any luxuries. She doesn't seek any form of enjoyment because her work is already a form of enjoyment to her. She never spends more than NT$100 ($3.20) on her meals in a day because she eats simply and keeps leftovers.
She sleeps on her hard floor because she doesn't want the comfort of a warm bed to stop her from getting up early to buy her supply of vegetables. Basically for Chen, all she needs is food to eat and a place to stay.
Despite her humble lifestyle, Chen has never allowed herself to take advantage of other people's generosity. With her next amount of savings, she is aiming to set up a "Chen Shu-Chu Bursary" to help poor children pay for their school fees.
She is what a simple life is. Not only is her lifestyle so much simpler than any of ours, she is also more contented than any of us too.
