Chen founded Wenzhou Middle School.

From 65438 to 0946, he planned to establish "Wenzhou Art School", hoping to cultivate Wenzhou's artistic talents extensively. To this end, he sold the only 3 acres of paddy fields in his family as school funds. This move was supported by Wenzhou gentry such as Yang, Liu, Fang Youyuan and Weng Laike. Wenzhou artists Xie, Xu Dachu and Xu Jinhou all expressed their willingness to come to the school to take part-time classes for free. In September of the same year, Wenzhou Art School applied to the Zhejiang provincial government and was approved to be established. Chen chose a private house as a temporary school site in Chengxi Lane, and erected a wooden archway at the entrance of the lane near West Street, inscribed with the six characters of "Wenzhou Art School" written by Yang Shanyou, a famous calligrapher in Wenzhou.

According to informed sources, it is a personal vendetta to prevent Chen from establishing Wenzhou Art School. 1945, Shanghai's famous Peking Opera actor Hai just debuted and came to Wenzhou for the first time, which fascinated Wenzhou opera fans. Hai's mother and Chen knew each other when they were in Shanghai, so they met and felt very cordial. In order to show his respect for the sea, Chen went to the Grand Theatre (later Park Road Southeast Theatre) for two consecutive nights to play the piano for the sea. Although Zhang Baochen is a Commissioner, he is a hungry ghost. He can also hum a few words of Peking Opera, calling himself a "diehard fan". He goes backstage and fights with the sea almost every night. Hai's mother saw it in her eyes, but she dared not speak out. Because, after all, he is not much better than the average person, and he holds the power of life and death in his hand, but he can't, so he told Chen about it. Chen was filled with indignation and went backstage to publicly criticize. Everyone present was worried about Chen and offended this "big shot". There is absolutely no good fruit to eat in the future. In the face of Chen's accusation, he was expressionless and still laughing, regardless of him. However, in the end, many obstacles were set up on the key issue of Chen's founding "Wenzhou Art School", which made Chen's achievements fall short.