[1][2] In September 1936, she entered the Department of Civil Engineering of Tsinghua University, where she met her future husband Song Ping, a chemistry student and activist in the December 9th Movement against Japanese aggression in China.

[1][2] When the Second Sino-Japanese War broke out in 1937 and the Japanese army occupied Beijing, Chen and Song evacuated with Tsinghua University to Changsha in southern China, where she joined the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in December 1937.

[1][2] In 1940, the CCP sent Chen as a representative to the Kuomintang government in China's wartime capital Chongqing, and later Nanjing after the end of World War II.

When the Chinese Civil War broke out, she was transferred to the CCP-held area in Northeast China, where she worked in education, including a stint as the principal of Harbin Girls' High School.

[1][2] Future CCP general secretary and paramount leader Hu Jintao, then a Tsinghua student, was a protégé of hers and later promoted by her husband Song Ping.