陳炘 (1893-1947)
Sin Chen, born in Taiwan in 1893, graduated from Taipei Normal School in 1913. After teaching for a while, by 1918 he entered Keio University in Japan to study finance and graduated in 1922. He got married in Taiwan the same year. In Fall 1923 he enrolled at Grinnell College for only one semester before transferring to study economics at Columbia University.
Chen attended the School of Business from February to May 1923 and then the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences from September 1923 to May 1924, but there is no record about whether he received his degree from Columbia. On March 18, 1925, along with Chinese alumni such as H. H. Yang (’24), T. H. Cheng (’24), J. P. Shen (’24), C. C. Ma (’24), and T. C. Chao (’23), Chen attended a Grinnell reunion and send-off party in his honor in New York City (SB 03/25/1925). The following week he, his wife, and their ten-month-old daughter set sail for Taiwan.
After his return, Chen fought for Taiwan’s self-determination and autonomy under both Japanese and Nationalist rules, serving as a leader in various business, political, and cultural organizations. He was secretly arrested and executed by Taiwan’s Nationalist regime during the notorious “February 28 Incident” in 1947.
“Minguo Renwu Xiaozhuan: Chen Sin” (Short Biographies of Republican Figures: Chen Sin). Zhuanji Wenxue, vol. 97, no. 6 (December 2010), 140-144.