Renowned philanthropic vendor Chen Shu-chu (陳樹菊), who sold vegetables at the Central Market in Taitung for more than half a century, has retired and moved to Kaohsiung, Taitung County Commissioner Justin Huang (黃健庭) said yesterday.
“I am less worried now that she has made this decision,” Huang said by telephone. “It is not a surprise that she retired.”
Huang said Chen, 67, fell ill before the Lunar New Year holiday and told him that she was considering retiring when he visited her.
Photo: CNA
“I encouraged her to retire, so that she could take a good long rest,” Huang said, adding that she now lives in Kaohsiung.
Chen Chia-ming (陳洽銘), her younger brother, also confirmed news of her retirement.
“She called me a few days ago, telling me she was going to retire and asking me to take over her vegetable stand,” Chen Chia-ming said. “I’m sorting it out and will hand it over to my son after May.”
“Since falling ill from appendicitis in early February, she has been resting at a temple in Kaohsiung,” Chen Chia-ming said. “She was rushed to hospital and had an emergency operation.”
“Although her life was saved, she has yet to fully recover and that is why her vegetable stand has been closed since then,” he added.
Chen Shu-chu became a household name across the nation after her good deeds were brought to light by local and foreign media.
She was honored as one of the 100 most influential figures by Time magazine in 2010 for contributing more than NT$10 million (US$343,077 at the current exchange rate) to different charitable causes.
In the same year, she was also named one of the 48 heroes of philanthropy by Forbes Asia.
In 2012, Chen Shu-chu was one of six winners of the Ramon Magsaysay Award for helping the poor, receiving a US$50,000 cash prize, which she donated to the Taitung branch of Mackay Memorial Hospital.
Chen Shu-chu’s mother died during childbirth when she was in elementary school, because the family could not afford to have her give birth in a hospital.
To help her father raise her younger siblings, she started to sell vegetables at the stand he left her at the age of 13.
Taipei and New Taipei City government officials are aiming to have the first phase of the Wanhua-Jungho-Shulin Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) line completed and opened by 2027, following the arrival of the first train set yesterday. The 22km-long Light Green Line would connect four densely populated districts in Taipei and New Taipei City: Wanhua (萬華), Jhonghe (中和), Tucheng (土城) and Shulin (樹林). The first phase of the project would connect Wanhua and Jhonghe districts, with Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall and Chukuang (莒光) being the terminal stations. The two municipalities jointly hosted a ceremony for the first train to be used
MILITARY AID: Taiwan has received a first batch of US long-range tactical missiles ahead of schedule, with a second shipment expected to be delivered by 2026 The US’ early delivery of long-range tactical ballistic missiles to Taiwan last month carries political and strategic significance, a military source said yesterday. According to the Ministry of National Defense’s budget report, the batch of military hardware from the US, including 11 sets of M142 High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS) and 64 MGM-140 Army Tactical Missile Systems, had been scheduled to be delivered to Taiwan between the end of this year and the beginning of next year. However, the first batch arrived last month, earlier than scheduled, with the second batch —18 sets of HIMARS, 20 MGM-140 missiles and 864 M30
Representative to the US Alexander Yui delivered a letter from the government to US president-elect Donald Trump during a meeting with a former Trump administration official, CNN reported yesterday. Yui on Thursday met with former US national security adviser Robert O’Brien over a private lunch in Salt Lake City, Utah, with US Representative Chris Stewart, the Web site of the US cable news channel reported, citing three sources familiar with the matter. “During that lunch the letter was passed along, and then shared with Trump, two of the sources said,” CNN said. O’Brien declined to comment on the lunch, as did the Taipei
A woman who allegedly attacked a high-school student with a utility knife, injuring his face, on a Taipei metro train late on Friday has been transferred to prosecutors, police said yesterday. The incident occurred near MRT Xinpu Station at about 10:17pm on a Bannan Line train headed toward Dingpu, New Taipei City police said. Before police arrived at the station to arrest the suspect, a woman surnamed Wang (王) who is in her early 40s, she had already been subdued by four male passengers, one of whom was an off-duty Taipei police officer, police said. The student, 17, who sustained a cut about
RSS