While a second-year student at National Taiwan Normal University's attached high school, the gutsy Chu called Software World, a computer game magazine, and announced his interest in testing video games and writing evaluations of them. Seeing that he was a lucid thinker as well as a gifted writer, the magazine's editor agreed and granted him his own column, an experience that provided the background for his later translation work.
在師大附中高二就讀時，他主動打電話給電玩雜誌「軟體世界」，表示可以為該雜誌寫電玩測試報告與評析報導。由於他的思路清晰，文筆也不差，受到主編的欣賞，結果整整寫了一年專欄，也種下日後從事小說翻譯的遠因。