A woman of substance
Su Chunying holds a Tibetan orphan in Ganzi County of Southwest China's Sichuan Province. There, the Taiwanese woman is building an orphanage, which will be home to 1,000 children. |
In 1995, a family from East China's Shandong Province appealed for help on China Central Television (CCTV). Their daughter was suffering from brain cancer.
Su kept sending money to the girl every month until she passed away in 1998. To help the girl's unemployed parents make a living, Su sent them 30,000 yuan in 2000, to open a small shop.
To her surprise, the couple appeared at her home four years later to pay back the money.
"What little income the couple must make through a paper copy shop! But they remembered to repay me, no matter how frugal their lives would be," Su said in her Shanghai apartment.
"What touched me the most was that they donated the money to an orphanage after I declined their offer. A donation from a poor family is much more meaningful than that from the rich."
The mother of two has sponsored many people on the mainland since 1994, including under-privileged students, single elderly people, cancer patients and homeless migrant workers.
In January, she was honored as one of China's Warm-hearted Figures (CWF) of 2006 at the CWF Forum co-sponsored by the Ministry of Culture, People's Daily and China Reports in Beijing. "If I only had 100 yuan left, I would donate 80 yuan or even more as long as the rest of the money met my basic daily needs," said Su, 43. "It might sound a bit extreme, but it is my nature."
Su Chunying runs a kindergarten in Shanghai. She plans to donate all the profits from the kindergarten to the orphanage in Ganzi, Sichuan. |
But her manners, clear logic and eloquence disclose her unusual experiences.
She was born into a wealthy family, whose uncle, Tsai Wan-lin, was once among the richest businessmen in Taiwan.
Surprisingly, Su claims that she grew up in poverty as her father kept a tight rein on the family fortune. No pocket money was allowed for the children.
Once she grew out of her school uniform, Su's father refused to buy her a new one.
Her mother committed suicide due to family problems when she was 7 years old, and then things went from bad to worse for her and her elder siblings.
These sad experiences later influenced her view towards wealth and fortune. "With money, you can buy medicine, but you cannot buy health. With money, you can buy gifts, but you cannot buy happiness or respect," she explained.
As an act of rebellion against her family, Su married a man from a poorer family after she graduated from university. But the difficulties she encountered were far more than she had expected.
Crowding into a small apartment with three generations, her little son's illness, and the repayment of the house loan, turned the young woman into a desperate housewife, while she also had to face ridicule from her rich family.
"The experience of not having two pennies to rub together was horrible," she recalled.
"But I am thankful for these sufferings, otherwise I would never have understood how painful life can be when you are in desperate need of money, or how hopeless you can feel when you are in difficultly and no one is willing to lend a hand."
In 1994, Su's family moved to Beijing, where her husband landed a job making and selling ATM machines. Soon she started charity work, following the growth of her family's income and profits from her real estate investments.
Su is particularly interested in sponsoring education.
"Good education touches a person's heart and improves their wisdom," she said.
Su only lives in her apartment a few months each year, spending the rest of the time travelling in Tibetan regions.
Once she travelled alone to Qinghai Province in Northwest China. There, she visited a school and was shocked to see how tough the conditions were for the students.
Since then, she regularly visits Tongren and Zeku counties, under Huangnan Tibet Autonomous Prefecture, in Qinghai.
Her donations of 5 million yuan ($641,000) helped build some 20 schools from 1994 to 2004.
Thanks to her efforts, Ting Hsin International Group, a Taiwanese company, also donated 2.5 million yuan ($320,000) to local schools.
Su never asks people to repay her kindness. "It is like I were a burning candle in a dark room, lighting up someone to pass on my warmth.
"What I want them to do is to pass love to others, so that they benefit people in a positive way," she said with a smile.
Su is building an orphanage in Ganzi County, with an elevation of more than 3,000 meters, in Southwest China's Sichuan Province.
There are 1,200 registered orphans in the county due to frequent natural disasters and poor medical conditions.
The orphanage began construction last year. When completed in 2009, it will accommodate 1,000 children.
Su sees the orphanage not just as a shelter for homeless children but also a place to promote Tibetan culture.
"What I notice is that many local people do not have a wealthy knowledge of Tibetan culture. Children are like seeds, and the culture will blossom again because of them," she said.
She plans to set up more training courses in the orphanage to help the children master skills passed down by generations.
Su pointed out that the biggest obstacle she has to face is the distrust of those who believe that she gives for selfish motives.
"Fortune has its own limits. Even if I were Bill Gates, the truth is that all my money would run out quickly to help all the refugees if some earthquake or tsunami took place in the world. What is more powerful is that people are enabled to help each other get through the difficulties of life."
(China Daily 03/08/2007 page18)
