[5] It has been claimed that Chen formulated his decision to give up his businesses as follows: At that time, I told myself: Taiwan's society has become like this, what is the meaning of making a larger fortune?

[4][6] According to a 2002 article in The Journalist, Chen was part of what was referred to as the 'Ilan gang', a group of DPP officials associated with the New Tide faction in the party and having ties to Premier Yu Shyi-kun.

These choices included the 1986 announcement to end flag-raising ceremonies on New Year's Day, as well as the 1988 decision to stop enforcing the requirement that movie theatres play the national anthem before each film showing.

[11] He also removed the portraits of Chiang Kai-shek and Chiang Ching-kuo from government buildings such as schools,[2] destroyed "loyalty records" kept of local public sector employees,[11] and, within Yilan County Government, deactivated the Human Resources Second Office,[11] alternatively known as the Second Section of Personnel Office [zh],[12] incorporated as a department of every public institution.

[13] For the first and only time during the 1990s, the KMT made corruption its main theme of attacking a candidate of the DPP, as Soong accused Chen of hiring land speculators and drug dealers as campaigners.

[14] Lee Kun-tse [zh] (Chinese: 李昆澤), who was Chen's chief secretary while the latter was justice minister, claimed that his former boss used the public bus as a general means of transportation, in contrast with other politicians of high ranks, and noted that he never spent over NT$70 on a meal and used the public train for his travels home to Yilan.

[3][16] The Wall Street Journal Asia lauded Chen as 'Taiwan’s black gold nemesis' (Chinese: 台灣的黑金剋星), implying 'Taiwan’s anti-corruption star'.

[4] Political analyst Shih Cheng-fong claimed that Chen focused on the environmental protection of Yilan County's ecology, rather than transforming it into an industrial center.

[6] According to the 'Chen Ding-nan Educational Foundation', in 1988, the CommonWealth Magazine (Chinese: 天下雜誌) listed Chen as one of the fifty most influential persons in the history of Taiwan.

[18] When DPP candidate Lin Tsung-hsien won the 2009 elections for the Yilan County magistrate, certain media attributed his success partly due to the handing over of Chen's briefcase to Lin by Chen's widow Chang Chao-yi (Chinese: 張昭義), seen as a gesture symbolizing her endorsement for the candidate.

[20] After the race for the 2005 Yilan County magistrate elections, Chen's health quickly worsened, suffering a constant fever.

Also, he left instructions that his body must be cremated within 72 hours (3 days), and to sprinkle part of his ashes into the Yilan lands and some placed beside his family graveyard.

On 5 November 2011, marking five years since Chen's death, such a park opened under attendance of Taiwan Solidarity Union Chairman Huang Kun-huei, amongst others, receiving the name of 'Chen Ding-nan Memorial Hall' (Chinese: 陳定南紀念館).

[23] The memorial, to which the admission is free of charge, preserved the house of his birth and new structures were added by architect Huang Chien-hsing (Chinese: 黃建興), while the landscape was designed by Toshiya Ishimura.