Chen Dingshan

Chen Dingshan
Chen Dingshan, c. 1970s
Born
Chen Qu (陳蘧)

1897
Died1987 (aged 89–90)
OccupationsAuthor, calligrapher, painter
Chinese name
Traditional Chinese
Simplified Chinese
Transcriptions
Standard Mandarin
Hanyu PinyinChén Dìngshān
Wade–GilesCh`en2 Ting4shan1

Chen Dingshan (1897–1987) was a Chinese calligrapher, artist, and poet. The son of a writer-cum-industrialist, Chen practised the arts from a young age, and in the 1920s became a prominent member of the Shanghai art scene. He organized several exhibitions and associations, while also establishing his own domicile and restaurant in his native Hangzhou. In 1948, toward the end of the Chinese Civil War, Chen moved to Taiwan, where he wrote extensively and published several collections of anecdotes.

A prolific author, Chen generally used a vernacularized form of classical Chinese, with a particular focus on anecdotes about early 20th-century Shanghai. Although often dismissed in histories of Chinese and Taiwanese literature, several compilations of Chen's works have been published since 2016.