He initially gained attention for illustrating short stories for Lu Xun, who is considered to be one of the 20th century's best known Chinese satirists.
In 1952,[4] he joined the Shanghai People's Fine Arts Publishing House (East China People's Fine Arts Publishing House) as a creative writer, and in 1956, he took part in the preparatory work for the Shanghai Painting Academy and served as a painter.
Since then, his artistic vision has been expanding, "taking the ancient and modern Chinese and foreign methods and transforming them", and he is unique in figures, flowers and birds.
Mr. Chen has skillfully arranged the pig in the picture, and the spring flowers in the girl's hand vividly depicts the theme of the painting.
After the liberation he became a successful illustrator of children's books and taught at the Shanghai Chinese Painting Academy, where he developed an eclectic style that combined traditional brushwork with Western drawing techniques using a pen.
A number of the leaves openly celebrate the 1976 downfall of Jiang Qing, Mao Zedong's notorious wife and leader of the Gang of Four, which strictly controlled culture.