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Hu Ting-fang, the Tinker
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By Wu Hsiao-ting
Photographs by Lin Feng-chi
"Although
life has been hard on me, I am really happy now, because as poor
as I am I can still help other people."
You often see him fixing umbrellas left by
visitors on the umbrella stands at the entrance of the Tzu Chi
Taipei Cultural Center. Sometimes he sits there for hours absorbed
in his work. One day as I passed by, I stopped to talk to him.
He told me that he had been repairing an umbrella for more than
an hour. "Some umbrellas are really hard to repair. Sometimes
it takes hours to get a broken one into shape. But it's better
than to throw them away or see them go to waste."
Seventy-one-year-old Hu Ting-fang makes his living by traveling
from place to place mending umbrellas and shoes and sharpening
kitchen knives. In these times, when most people just throw away
broken things instead of getting them repaired, it is not easy
to make a good living in this way. But for him, a person with
only a few years of formal education and no other skills, being
a repairman seems like the only way to make a living.
For more than two years, Hu has been coming
regularly to the cultural center to repair umbrellas free for
Tzu Chi people. When he found out that Tzu Chi was raising money
to build schools that had been destroyed or damaged in the September
21 earthquake, he decided that he would donate, by installments,
NT$100,000 [US$3,300] to the foundation to help children in the
quake zone return to school.
It may not be too large a sum for most people,
but for Hu, who charges NT$80 - 300 for sharpening a kitchen knife
and NT$10 - 50 for fixing an umbrella, it was not easy to scrape
together such a sum of money.
But one day, holding a certificate of appreciation
awarded to him by Tzu Chi, he happily told us that he had fulfilled
his wish--the contributions he made had amounted to NT$100,000
dollars. His contented little smile told us how happy he was to
be able to contribute to a good cause.
A checkered career
Hu is a veteran who joined the Nationalist
army to fight against the Chinese Communists when he was eighteen
years old. In 1949 when the Nationalist government retreated from
mainland China to Taiwan, he also came with the military to the
island and worked as a janitor in a government office.
But the job did not last long. Two months later,
he was sent away with a severance pay of NT$108 [US$2.70]. Hu
had no relatives in Taiwan and not much of an education. After
the meager money was used up, he could only wander around the
island finding odd jobs to do.
It
was not easy to make a living by doing odd jobs, so Hu also gambled
to cheat people out of their money. "When you're poor and
hungry, it's hard for you to resist anything," he said. "At
that time, I often felt that I'd rather trade my life for a meal."
Once he even got into a fight with a policeman
when he was scalping movie tickets in front of a theater and was
consequently jailed. He was released six months later. Wandering
in a prosperous area in Taipei, he saw some veterans selling used
shoes on the streets. An idea occurred to him--"Why don't
I do the same?" He secretly watched and learned how the veterans
fixed broken shoes, and then he searched through garbage cans
around the city for shoes that had been thrown away. After washing
them clean, he mended them with the skills he had learned from
the veterans. The repaired shoes were then sold off.
Hu's newly acquired skills helped him regain
his self-confidence. After all, it was better to earn one's living
honestly. Gradually, his skills got better and he also continued
to learn other skills such as fixing umbrellas and sharpening
knives.
A few years later, he had saved enough money
to rent a small place on Chunghua Road in downtown Taipei where
he could do business. His life was finally secure and settled.
He got married soon afterwards and his three children were brought
into the world one after another.
But his life could not stay calm and peaceful
for long. Some misfortune happened (whose nature Hu considered
unfit to disclose) which caused him to lose all his savings. The
family was suddenly thrust into a difficult situation.
Having lost all his money, Hu could find no
way to support his family. At his wits' end, he reverted to earning
money by illegal ways again. But the police found out. This time
he was not alone in the world. Afraid that his family would have
no one to take care of them once he was put behind bars, he decided
to run away with his family and live his life as a fugitive.
It was not until nine years ago when he had
to register the birth of his oldest child so that the boy could
go to school that Hu decided to give himself up to the law.
Hu said that when he was in jail, some good-hearted
policemen looked after his family for him. He was so grateful
to them that he promised that he would never take to evil ways
again. "Ever since I was released from prison, I have done
nothing illegal or bad. And I will never again do anything that
would bring shame on my family."
Making friends with
Tzu Chi
Hu started to live his life as a traveling
repairman after he got out of prison. Taking only scanty meals
with him--steamed dumplings and canned food--he circled around
Taipei on a motorcycle that was given to him by a friend. But
as the repair business went downhill due to the changing lifestyles
in Taiwan, he could no longer support his family with the little
money he earned.
The head of his district applied on his behalf
for the allowances provided by the government to low-income families.
If not for that money, Hu would not have been able to feed and
clothe his family.
About three or four years ago when he was going
round the city finding repair jobs to do, he suddenly got a stomachache.
Seeing a nearby clinic, he entered and told the people there that
he wanted to register to see the doctor. He was informed that
he was in a free clinic set up by the Tzu Chi Foundation and that
the medical service provided there was free of charge. Hu went
on to say that he was not a Tzu Chi member, but the doctor still
diagnosed and treated him with care and patience. "I was
dirty and stinking at that time, but the doctor still massaged
me in order to make me more comfortable." That kind act of
the doctor deeply impressed and touched him.
Some time later, he found out that Tzu Chi
also provided aid to the poor and needy. Because of his straitened
circumstances, he applied to the foundation to become one of its
aid recipients. A volunteer then visited his home to see whether
his family was qualified to receive aid. Finding that the family
did not meet their strict qualifications, she gently declined
his request.
Hu was disappointed, but he did not blame Tzu
Chi at all. "I don't resent that Tzu Chi volunteer. Instead,
I'm thankful to her. When she rejected my application, I was spurred
to work harder. She hardened my determination to depend on myself
instead of on others." Before he had gone out to work at
eight in the morning, but after that episode he started out as
early as five-thirty. With his increased efforts, his business
got better and the financial situation of his family was significantly
improved.
"I have to thank Tzu Chi for not providing
assistance to me, or else I might have become a parasite and simply
relied on its help instead of earning my living through hard work,"
Hu said. "Where there is a will, there is a way. Nothing
is hard in life. As long as you're not lazy, you won't starve
to death."
Don't put off doing
good deeds
Hu always regretted not having been adequately
educated when he was young. The lack of a formal education made
it hard for him to get a footing in society. Thus, when he heard
that Master Cheng Yen was calling for people's help to support
Project Hope, he immediately pitched in and made a commitment
to donate NT$100,000.
That donation was a strain on his resources.
People who knew his situation advised him to budget his resources
and not to overextend himself. But he said, "I'm getting
old and can't afford to waste any more time. I have to make the
best use of my time to do good things."
Although his desire to donate $100,000 has
already been fulfilled, Hu will go on doing whatever he can to
help those in need. "I don't long for any enjoyments in life.
Frankly, I'm willing to give all of myself to help others. The
only thing I hope for is that people can care for each other more,
so that our society will be peaceful and become a better place
for us to live in."
As Duh Chun-yuan, a famous Taiwanese entrepreneur,
said, "It is nothing for me to contribute ten million dollars,
but it means a great deal if a poor man can make a donation of
one thousand dollars." Even those who are themselves in need
still want to make an effort to help others--this is what touches
us most behind the story of Hu Ting-fang.
