Career
Since the 1980s, he has been viewed by many as "Taiwan"s greatest author", according to Jeffrey C. Kinkley. Chen is also notable for serving a prison sentence for "subversive activity" between 1968 and 1973. He has been active since the late-1950s.
Chen was again imprisoned in 1979.
The Collected Works of Chen Yingzhen is 15 volumes long, and was published in 1988. Some of his stories were also included in Lucien Miller"s Exiles at Home.
Chen Yingzhen was born in northern Taiwan, the son of a devout Christian minister. Despite this, he never was a Christian himself while growing up.
Chen has been supporter of the notion of a unifying Chinese national identity in Taiwan, as opposed to "nativist" writers like Zhang Liangze, who support the development of a native Taiwanese consciousness.
