after graduating from tokyo university of the arts in 1931, chen houei kuen was employed as a part-time teacher at taichung commercial school (now the national taichung institute of technology) to demonstrate commercial art in 1934. after three years, his wife suffered a serious illness and died; he transferred to xin gong public school and served as a full-time substitute teacher with stable income. he married with his colleague miss xie bi-lian, but after 2 years, he had lost two children and his second wife. however, he immersed himself in his artwork and concentrated on his eastern gouache works. thus, his works such as “ stroll in freedom”, “autumn harvest”, “scene of lakefront” and “mountain hiking” were selected for the annual exhibition which inspired him a lot.