Lien was born in Xi'an in mainland China, and his first primary school was called the Zuo Xiu school. Because of the war, he transferred out after only one year. The name of the school actually was an abbreviation for a term meaning "to educate and cultivate." But in contemporary Taiwan, coincidentally, the characters zuo xiu mean "to put on a show" or "market yourself."
連戰在西安出生，念的第一所小學叫「作秀小學」，因戰局混亂，只念了一年就轉學，當時作秀二字是「作育秀苗」的意思，不料到了台灣卻變成在媒體前表演、主動推銷自己的意思。