It was not until his senior year that he got hold of the opportunity to work as a studio assistant in the Department of Mass Communication at the university, which led him to an internship with director Wang Shaudi.
Chen started his first job as a script supervisor for director Tsai Ming-Liang's comedy drama, Happy Motor Shop (1989).
[3] Chen shot his first feature film, Tropical Fish, in 1994, after years of working with television series.
The film was commercially successful and critically acclaimed, making Tropical Fish one of the most remarkable comedies in the history of Taiwan cinema.
[4] Due to his dissatisfaction with the filmmaking environment and his box office failures in Taiwan, Chen had once left the film industry for 13 years.