Missouri Classical Music News

Growing up in the city of Guangzhou during the 1960s, Chen and her family witnessed the harsh realities of a Communist government. Their home was routinely searched, they were forced into engaging in public self-criticism and had to live their lives under much stress from political pressures due to their status as an "intellectual" family. Chen's parents were medical doctors and her sister was a child prodigy at the piano, performing on the local radio.

As a teenager, Chen was sent off to the countryside to perform forced labor work in order to be "reeducated." She brought her violin along and played the revolutionary songs, which were the only thing anyone was allowed to play. As she played, she would improvise the songs and created new works of her own.

Near the end of the "Cultural Revolution" in 1978, the future professor was among the first group of composition students accepted into the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing, when she was 25.