Professor Chen Wen-Chen Memorial Foundation (陳文成教授紀念基金會)
Identity Snapshot
- English: Professor Chen Wen-Chen Memorial Foundation
- Chinese: 陳文成教授紀念基金會
- Era: Contemporary
- Geography: Taiwanese American community
- Core roles: Community organization (TAH directory)
The Chen Wen-Chen Memorial Foundation was established in memory of Chen Wen-Chen, a Taiwanese national and Carnegie Mellon University professor who was found dead on July 3, 1981, after being held for questioning by Taiwan’s authoritarian government during a visit to his homeland. The foundation was created in the aftermath of his death to honor his legacy and address the political circumstances surrounding it. Its work focuses on promoting social, economic, and political justice as well as human rights for the Taiwanese people. It has served as an important institution within the Taiwanese American community in advocating for democracy and civil liberties in Taiwan.
Role in the Community
From the corpus record:
-
The foundation (referred to in memoirs as the Dr. Chen Wen-Chen Memorial Foundation) was a founding member association of the Taiwanese Community Council in New York, alongside the Taiwanese American Association of New York, the Taiwanese American Association of New Jersey, the Taiwanese Association for Human Rights New York Chapter, FAPA New York Chapter, and NY Taiwan Society. Dr. Maurice Hsu was publicly nominated as the founding president. Source: Our Journeys — NY community memoir.
-
The foundation has run the Professor Chen Wen-Chen’s Scholarship Award (陳文成獎學金), documented in the TAH community record dated 2015-07-23: 20. 陳文成獎學金 Professor Chen Wen-Chen’s Scholarship Award.
-
The circumstances of Chen Wen-Chen’s death are preserved as community historical record: Incident: Death of Prof. Chen Wen-Chen on July 3, 1981 in Taipei, Taiwan, with the period photograph of the victim and his father 陳庭茂 in the TAH historical album (1981-07-03).
-
Founding, first-hand from Evan Ling (林富文), the foundation’s first president ([[works/taiwaneseamericanhistory-org/ourjourneys8-eng|Our Journeys #8]]): after the 1981 death, a nationwide donation campaign was organised mainly by 許永華 (Yung Hwa Hsu) in Ann Arbor and 賴金德 (Chin-teh Lai) in Pittsburgh; Chen Wen-Chen’s wife 陳素貞 directed the majority of the $50,000 raised toward a permanent Chen Wen-Chen scholarship. Evan Ling incorporated the non-profit in New Jersey, and on 許永華’s advice expanded the mission beyond the scholarship to studying Taiwanese history and culture, human-rights advocacy, and political and economic equality for the Taiwanese people.
-
Programme structure per the founding memoir (education / culture / recreation): the 陳文成獎學金 is recorded as the first scholarship for Taiwanese people in North America — 8 years, 30+ recipients by 2014, selection criteria and review committee arranged single-handedly by Prof. 黃金來 (Kim Lai Huang, Kansas), with 方菊雄 liaising NATPA; the 陳文成紀念專輯 published on the first anniversary with all authors and editors under pseudonyms to evade white terror (articles collected by 許永華); the stage play 《補破網》 staged at TAC/EC on the second anniversary in 1983 (directed by 陳明楷; 康泰山 as 陳文成, 黃靜枝 as 陳素貞); and the bimonthly 《台灣文化》 (2.5 years in print by 2014, recording 228 Incident history; editor-in-chief 陳芳明, president 黃美幸「Maysing Huang」, contributors 林俊提、謝裡法); the 文成盃網球賽, designed by board member 邱義昌, recorded as the largest annual Taiwanese gathering in the U.S. after TAC/EC, later expanded to cities nationwide.
-
The founding is corroborated by a second first-hand account, Yung Hwa Hsu’s recollections ([[works/taiwaneseamericanhistory-org/ourjourneys321-eng|Our Journeys #321 — Establishment of the Chen Wen-Chen Memorial Foundation (EN)]]); a directory entry also exists in the TAH community record (4. Professor Chen Wen-Chen Memorial Foundation 陳文成教授紀念基金會).
-
Fundraising ran in two stages toward a $100,000 goal: 陳素貞’s lecture tours of major U.S. cities, then the U.S. visit of Chen Wen-Chen’s father 陳庭茂 ([[works/taiwaneseamericanhistory-org/ourjourneys8-eng|Our Journeys #8]]).
-
HOLD: the founding memoir names Evan Ling (林富文) as first president and names Maysing Huang as president of the bimonthly 《台灣文化》, while the 2021 commemorative-plaza record shows 楊黃美幸 as foundation chairman — officer lineage not auto-merged.
-
In New Jersey the foundation (listed as the W.C. Chen Foundation) appears as association #28 in the roster of台美团体 in that state, placing it in the multi-state organizational fabric of the movement (356. 紐澤西州的台美團體).
-
On the 40th anniversary of the Chen Wen-Chen incident, the foundation’s chairman 楊黃美幸 attended NTU’s official unveiling of the 陳文成事件紀念廣場 (Feb 2021) alongside university and family representatives — the diaspora foundation’s continuity with the ongoing truth-and-transparency cause in Taiwan ( 2021-02-03).
-
Media memory of the case: the first issue of 《台灣公論報》 (1981-07-31) was built around the Chen Wen-Chen story days after the death, and its headline word 「暴斃」 drew fierce community criticism — an early fight over how the movement recorded the case ( 口述:張月英女士).
-
The foundation is counted among the pillars of the organized Taiwanese-American movement in North America, listed alongside the 台美基金會 and the 中西部台灣基督徒基金會 in 黃武東’s overview of 台灣人在北美洲 (2016).
-
The case’s catalytic role is corroborated community-wide: the 陳文成命案 (with 美麗島事件 and 林宅血案) drove the wave of nationwide organizing that produced NATPA (1980), FAPA (1982) and NATMA (1983) ( 2014-12), and in the Bay Area it punctuated the 「台灣之音」 phone-message network’s run from 中壢事件 through the 1981命案 (2020). Many FAPA founding members were 陳文成博士’s own 同窗好友 (2017).
-
The case remains an open historical grievance in community memory: 王康陸’s 1993 death is recalled alongside the 陳文成案 as a 「查無凶手」 cold case, with the 陳案 still drawing advocacy decades later — CMU’s president famously spoke out at the time, and the case was investigated but never solved (2017).
-
Later community reflection: 李木通’s essay 從陳文成命案談起 (2020-05) revisits the case as living memory (2020); the scholarship itself is also catalogued as its own record, 陳文成獎學金 — the first scholarship award, 1981 ( 1981), and the death is recorded in the movement milestone timeline (1981 Prof. Chen Wen Chen found dead in Tai-da campus).