Da Chen

Da Chen (1962 – December 17, 2019) was a Chinese-American author whose works included Colors of the Mountain, Brothers, and Sword. Colors of the Mountain gave rise to a version for young readers, China's Son,^[1] and a sequel, Sounds of the River.^[2] The Washington Post, San Francisco Chronicle, Miami Herald and Publishers Weekly hailed Brothers as the best book of 2006.^[3]

Da Chen speaking at the North Carolina State University 2007 Convocation

Born in Huangshi, Putian, Fujian, China,^[4][5] he grew up in poverty during the Cultural Revolution.^[6] His paternal grandfather had owned land, and that wealth attracted the persecution of the Chinese Communist Party.^[1] That persecution did not spare the rest of the family, and Chen was expelled from school and sent down to the countryside to do hard labor.^[7] Even though the Cultural Revolution denied him much of his formal education, Chen studied for and performed well in the college entrance exams reinstated after the Cultural Revolution.^[7] He was admitted to and graduated from Beijing Language and Culture University. After teaching there, he emigrated to the U.S. on a scholarship for Union College in Lincoln, Nebraska. In 1990, he received a J.D. from Columbia Law School,^[8][9][10] and he then worked as an investment banker while writing.^[7] After the publications of his memoirs, he also taught writing at Fairfield University and New York University.^[1]

Chen lived in Southern California with his wife, Sunny, and two children.^[5][11] Chen died December 17, 2019, at his home in Temecula, California, from lung cancer.^[1]

Bibliography

• Colors of the Mountain (1999)
• China's Son: Growing Up in the Cultural Revolution (2001)
• Sounds of the River: A Memoir (2002)
• Wandering Warrior (2003)
• Brothers (2006)
• My Last Empress (2012)^[12]
• Girl Under a Red Moon (2019)

See also

• Scar literature
• Sent-down youth