[1] Born in 1958 Chen worked as a film critic before debuting as a director in 1989 with School Girl.
In the 1990s, he continued to explore the female perspective with Treasure Island, The Peony Pavilion (inspired by traditional drama of the same name) and anti-romantic comedy The Personals.
Right on a series of blind dates, screened in Cannes' Un Certain Regard sidebar and was distributed in Asia, Europe and North America.
Here he accumulated experience in international film making and connections to young Chinese directors such as Feng Xiaogang.
In 2009 Chen served as an executive producer of China's then highest grossing domestic film of all time, Feng Xiaogang's romantic drama If You Are the One.