Background
Mr. Chen was born in Panyü, Guangdong, China in 1874.
Mr. Chen was born in Panyü, Guangdong, China in 1874.
Cheng Hung-nien graduated with the degree of Chu-jen under the Manchu regime.
Mr. Cheng was appointed president of the Chi Nan Government Institute by the Board of Education in 1908. Since 1912 he worked as a chief secretary to the Ministry of Communications under Dr. Sun Yat-sen's Provisional Government at Nanking. The following year he became a vice-Minister of Communications, Peking (1913). From 1924 Chen Hung-nien served as a Commissioner of Finance in the Canton Military Government, and later, high adviser to the Military Governor of Kwangtung.
In 1927 he resumed his office as a vice-Minister of Finance under the Nationalist Government at Nanking. Mr. Cheng held a post of a political vice Minister of Industry, Commerce and Labor, from 1928. He was a member of the National Reconstruction Committee of the Nationalist Government member of the Overseas Affairs Committee. Cheng Hung-nien was a member of the National University Council (Ministry of Education),the Committee on the Disposition of the Boxer Indemnity Fund. He was promoted president of the Chinan University, Chenju near Shanghai between 1927 and 1934 (the university being largely devoted to the education of the sons of the overseas Chinese). Mr. Cheng also was a member of the Legislative Yuan since 1984.