Angered by Budget Cuts, Woman Donates NT$100,000 Saved from Recycling to Taiwan Cinema, Moving Culture Minister to Tears

Yeh Chin-hsing traveled north from Kaohsiung with NT$100,000 saved through years of selling chewing gum and collecting recyclables. She came to meet Culture Minister Li Yuan because she felt the Culture Ministry had been treated unfairly after cuts to cultural funding.

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Thank you, but we cannot accept your money.

Yeh approached Li at an event held by Taiwan’s National Film and Audiovisual Center on September 2. She introduced herself as a longtime film fan and said she wanted to donate the money to the ministry. Li said he did not know how to respond and told her, “Thank you, but we cannot accept your money.”

Yeh then decided to donate the NT$100,000 to Taiwan cinema instead. Staff members issued a receipt while crying, according to Li. He later learned that Yeh had saved the money through her own labor and had supported Taiwan’s film institutions continuously for 30 years, from the days of the National Film Archive to the current audiovisual center.

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I cried all the way back to the office.

Li described the gesture as a direct and unadorned expression of support during a difficult period. After the event, he wrote that he could no longer hold back his emotions and “cried all the way back to the office” before drying his eyes and continuing to work. He thanked Yeh on Facebook, saying her passion, conscience and loyalty encouraged officials to keep going through a harsh test, and called her “an angel sent from heaven to comfort us.”

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Your passion, conscience and loyalty have encouraged us to keep moving forward under this harsh test. You really are an angel sent from heaven to comfort us.