When she was 14 she visited the set of "Spring Dream in the Old Capital (故都春梦)" which the Lianhua Film Company was recording in Beijing.

She returned each day after attending the Sacred Heart Girls School and struck up a conversation with Cai Chusheng who was to shortly direct his own films.

[1] Chen left for Shanghai with her mother as a chaperone and within three years she was an acknowledged star known as "The Swallow" with a particular appeal to college students.

[1] In 1949 she moved and she co-founded her own company Haiyan Film Studio in Hong Kong with her second husband Wang Hao 王豪.

[3] In 1963 she joined the Hong Kong-based Shaw Brothers Studio and she gained more award nominations for her acting.