Chen Wen-chen
| Chen Wen-chen | |
|---|---|
| Native name | 陳文成 |
| Born |
30 January 1950 Taipei, Taiwan |
| Died | 2 July 1981 (aged 31) Taipei, Taiwan |
| Cause of death | falling |
| Body discovered | 3 July 1981 |
| Resting place | Nhungho County (?) |
| Education |
|
| Occupation | Assistant Professor (mathematics) |
| Employer | Carnegie Mellon University |
| Spouse(s) | Chen Su-jen (陳素貞) (1976–1981, his death) |
| Children | 1 |
| Relatives | sister Chen Pao-yue ((陳寶月)) |
| Chen Wen-chen | |||||||||||
| Traditional Chinese | 陳文成 | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Simplified Chinese | 陈文成 | ||||||||||
|
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| Transcriptions | |
|---|---|
| Standard Mandarin | |
| Hanyu Pinyin | Chén Wénchéng |
| Southern Min | |
| Hokkien POJ | Tân Bûn-sêng |
Chen Wen-chen (Chinese: 陳文成; pinyin: Chén Wénchéng, sometimes romanized as Chen Wen-cheng) was an assistant professor of mathematics (specializing in probability and statistics) at Carnegie Mellon University who died on 3 July 1981 (aged 31) under mysterious circumstances. After the conclusion of his third year of teaching, he returned to his native Taiwan for a vacation. He was instructed not to leave Taiwan on his scheduled departure date. Members of Taiwan's secret police, the Garrison Command, detained and interrogated him for twelve hours on 2 July 1981, and his body was found on the campus of National Taiwan University the next day. The subsequent autopsy reported his death was due to a fall. Chen's death and the earlier massacre of Lin Yi-hsiung's family are cited as late examples of White Terror dissident suppression activities in Taiwan, although the case remains unsolved and the Garrison Command maintains it had nothing to do with his death.
Chen was one of eight children and was outspoken and straightforward, according to his brother. He was known to have criticized the Kuomintang (KMT)-led government in private conversations and advocated for Taiwan independence, raising funds to help those imprisoned in the wake of the Kaohsiung Incident.
Chen graduated with a B.S. in mathematics from National Taiwan University (NTU) in 1972 and served in the military, fulfilling his compulsory service. He left Taiwan for the United States in 1975, earning M.S. (1976) and Ph.D. (1978) degrees in statistics from the University of Michigan, with Professor Bruce Hill stating that he was "outstanding ... the best [student] that I'd seen in statistics in 21 years." Upon graduating from Michigan, he joined the faculty in the Department of Statistics of Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) in the fall of 1978. He published several papers in the area of statistics and probability.
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