Amid the surging conspicuous wealth and luxury of modern China, 63-year old vegetable vendor Chen Shu Chu has put the nouveau riche to shame by donating $330,000 to charity.

It has taken Chen 20 years of working 18 hours a day, six days a week at her modest vegetable stand in eastern Taiwan to save up more than 10 million Taiwanese dollars to help build a school library and a new wing of a hospital.

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A quick calculation of Chen's personal sacrifice shows that she has worked an estimated 112,230 hours at an average rate of $3.12 per hour. And this is what she gave away to charity, not what she lived on, which she said was no more than $3 per day. That was how someone of such limited means was able to save up so much money.

Putting the Tuhao to Shame

But what is even more extraordinary about Chen is that she exhibits such self-sacrifice amid a trend of self-absorbed exhibitionist wealth among China's nouveau riche, sometimes referred to as tuhao. 

What has taken Chen two decades of scrimping and saving to give to charity, is what a 20-something scion of China's wealthy elite might spontaneously plunk down for a Bentley Mulsanne. There are often reports in the media about how the wealthy in China are buying gold-plated BMWs, $1 million dogs, and $5,000 bottles of wine. But there are few reports of people giving so much more to others than they give to themselves.

Chen's example stands in stark contrast to the conspicuous wealth shown in recent weeks. There was the $2 billion purchase of the opulent Waldorf Astoria hotel in New York City by Anbang, a Chinese insurance company that didn't even exist more than 10 years ago. And then there was the record-breaking IPO of the Alibaba Group, which personally netted its chairman Jack Ma a staggering $16 billion. 

"You Can't Take it With You"

But you won't find Chen keeping any of her wealth to herself - even when it's given to her as a reward for her hard work. In 2012, she was the recipient of a Ramon Magsaysay Award and a $50,000 cash prize for helping the poor. She immediately donated the money to a Taitung hospital.

And the one time she decided to splurge on herself, she bought an imported piece of clothing only to later regret it, Chen told the BBC.

"When I wore it to the market, a customer said she had the same item of clothing and that mine must be a fake," Chen said. "I felt bad and I realized no matter how I dress, it doesn't change the fact that I'm a vegetable vendor."

Although the wealthy are typically the biggest donors to charity, often when they give it ends up being more about them than the charity they're helping.

Chen, on the other hand, is so unenamored with publicity and attention that she often refuses to do interviews, and only grudgingly does so if she feels it might inspire others to donate to charities.

"I don't see money as being that important," Chen said. "After all, you can't bring it with you when you start a new life and you can't take it with you when you leave this life."

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