GM Chen has spent the last thirty years in China, eighteen of which were in various cities on the Chinese Mainland. For fifteen years he was Chinese Manager of the Thomas De La Rue & Co., Ltd., banknote engravers and printers. When the Chinese mainland fell to the Communists, he followed the Government of the ROC to Taiwan where he spent six years as Advisor to the Foreign Affairs Service Department of the Combined Service Forces before returning to the business field. Since 1960 he has been connected with the Civil Air Transport, the Far East regional air carrier flying the Chinese flag as Assistant to the Director of Traffic Services.

Our GM has been a Mason for over thirty-one years. He was raised to the sublim degree of Master Mason in High Twelve Lodge No 82 in Oct 1031, in Manila, Philippine Islands. In November 1931 MW Brother Chen departed for Shanghai China, where he attended the Consecration of the first Masonic lodge to be chartered for Chinese membership. In 1940 after the Japanese had occupied most of the China mainland and masonry was in darkness, he, with a small group of brothers who withdrew to Chungking with the Government of the ROC during WWII, worked to rekindle the light of Free masonry in unoccupied China by obtaining a dispensation from the Grand Lodge of California to establish Fortitude Lodge UD in the wartime capital of Chungking. This Lodge functioned until after V.J. Day when the brethren returned to their former places of abode. The GM was not only one of the Founder of Fortitude Lodge UD., but also is Senior Deacon during his last year in Chungking.

In Mar 1949, the GLOC was consecrated in Shanghai, but its existence was of short duration. Within a few months Masonry in China was again in darkness due to the advance of Communism on the mainland.
In 1950 MW Bro Chen was call to Taipei Taiwan, the capital of Free China to assist the Government of the ORC in the implementation of the Sino-US Mutual Aid Agreement*. From the date of his arrival in Taipei he was again very active in bring Masonry from darkness to light in China. Masonic activities on Taiwan began with a Square and Compass Club of which MW Bro Chen was President in 1958-59. In 1954 Liberty Lodge UD was established; and when it received it’s Charter in 1956, our present GM was its reigning Master. He has held two appointive and five elective offices in the GLOC since 1956.

In addition to his Masonic activities, GM Chen has also served as President of the Stanford University Alumni Club of Taiwan, as a member of the Executive Committee, American University Club, Taiwan, and as Secretary of the Aloha Lambda Club.