Chen Xueping

Chen Hsueh-ping (November 1, 1901 – April 12, 1999) was a Chinese educator, psychologist, and politician in the Republic of China. He was a member of the Tsotanhui Clique within the Kuomintang.

Biography

Chen was born into a banking family; his father, Chen Shuliu, served as the head of the Bank of Communications in Liaoning under Zhang Zuolin's rule in Northeast China.

After earning his master's degree in psychology from Columbia University, Chen returned to China and taught at Northeastern University, Beijing Normal University, and Peking University. Following the outbreak of the Second Sino-Japanese War, he joined the National Southwestern Associated University. His efforts to defuse student protests drew the attention of Kang Tse, a close associate of Chiang Kai-shek, which led to his appointment as Minister of Youth in the Three Principles of the People Youth Corps.

Following the war, Chen returned to Peking University. During the 1946 Shen Chong case, which involved the rape of a female student by U.S. military personnel, Chen not only questioned whether Shen was enrolled at the university but also publicly criticized her for walking alone at night. These remarks, combined with the later revelation that Shen Chong was both a student and a relative of Chen, sparked nationwide anti-American student demonstrations and widespread public outrage.

During the Chinese Civil War, Chen worked alongside Zhu Jiahua, Fu Sinian, Hang Liwu, and Chiang Ching-kuo to lead efforts to relocate academics from mainland China to Taiwan—a campaign to as the "rescue of intellectuals."

From 1950 to 1952, Chen served as Director of the First Department under the KMT's Party Reform Program, where he was responsible for overseeing and guiding local party branches across Taiwan. In 1953, he joined the Department of Psychology at National Taiwan University as a professor and helped lay the groundwork for the university's graduate research programs. His remaining influence in government circles dissipated entirely following the death of his key political patron, Chen Cheng, in 1965.

Chen died in 1999 at the age of 97.

Leading Educational reforms At the invitation of Chen Cheng, reflecting on his appointment as Director-General of the Department of Education, Taiwan Provincial Government, Chen attributed the Nationalist government's defeat on the mainland in part to the lack of a coherent educational policy. He stated:

According to the 2006 biography Rebuilding the Foundations of Education in Taiwan: Chen Hsueh-ping (1901–1999), compiled by Cheng Yu-ching, then Vice President for Academic Affairs at the Taipei Municipal University of Education, and published by the National Institute of Educational Resources, Chen believed that the failure of education on the Chinese mainland stemmed from the absence of state planning, and consequently made "planned education" the centerpiece of his educational administration in Taiwan. On 30 May 1950, he promulgated the Implementing Measures for the Educational Program in the Extraordinary Period, which established a comprehensive framework for reforming schools and social education institutions, marking the first major educational reform in postwar Taiwan.

In his diary, Chiang Ching-kuo named Chen Hsueh-ping, along with Kuo Chi (郭驥) and Ho Chung-han (賀衷寒), as key figures in Chen Cheng's inner circle, describing Chen Hsueh-ping as the "most insidious" among those he believed were orchestrating attacks against him.