Background
Stephen S. F. Chen was born on February 11, 1934 in Nanking, Kiangsu, China.
陳錫蕃
Stephen S. F. Chen was born on February 11, 1934 in Nanking, Kiangsu, China.
During the Sino-Japanese War, he and his family followed the national government to Chongqing. At the end of the Second World War, the family moved back to Nanjing. With the coming of the Chinese Civil War, he went to live with the family of his elder sister in Manila, Philippines where Stephen S. F. Chen attended Chiang Kai Shek High School now Chiang Kai Shek College. He graduated from the University of Santo Tomas with a Bachelor of Arts in 1957 and an Master of Arts in political science in 1959 from Manila, Philippines.
In 1960, Stephen S. F. Chen entered the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of China. He served in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; Argentina and Bolivia. He was consul general in Atlanta from 1973 to 1979, when the United States ceased to recognize the Republic of China. From 1997 to 2000, consul general in Atlanta was director of the Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office in Washington, D.C., representing the interests of the Republic of China in the United States as a de facto ambassador.