chen was born in longjing, a town in taichung, taiwan on june 25, 1907. in 1915, he went to tatu township public schools and his father died in the same year. his mother died in 1920 and then he moved to his aunt's home and changed to study at wuci public school. after five months, he moved back to his hometown and lived with his grandmother. in 1928, he went to japan for tertiary education at tokyo school of fine arts. in 1929, he displayed his work in a museum in the name of “nakajima inc.” with 13 other artists. in the same year, he married with his first wife.