Chen Da

Chen Da, art name Tongfu, (; 1892–1975) was a Chinese sociologist.

Biography Chen was born in Lihe Village, Yuyao, Zhejiang Province. From 1912 to 1916, he studied at Tsinghua School in Beijing. From 1916 to 1923, he studied in the United States under the Boxer Indemnity scholarship program, and obtained his doctorate degree from Columbia University.

Upon graduation, he returned to China to teach at Tsinghua. When Tsinghua School transformed into Tsinghua University in 1929, Chen became a professor and the chair of the sociology department. During the Sino-Japanese War, he moved south with the university to Kunming, where he became head of the university's National Census Research Institute. He also became head of department and professor at the National Southwestern Associated University's sociology department. In 1923, he compiled a report for the US Department of Labor on the effects of, and reasons behind, Chinese emigration to the Dutch East Indies, Malacca, the Philippines, Hawaii, France and the Transvaal in South Africa. In 1929, his book, China's Labor Issues, a comparative work on industrial relations in China, was published by the Commercial Press.