early life and education chen danqing, a chinese-american artist, writer, and art critic, was born on august 11, 1953, in shanghai, china. his family home is in taishan, guangdong province. chen started learning oil painting in secondary school, where he acquainted himself with young artists like chen yifei and xia baoyuan. career in china (1970s-1980s) after graduating from secondary school at the age of 16, chen was forced to move to the countryside of southern ganzhou. later, with the help of chen yifei, he moved to the suburbs of nanjing and settled down there. during this period, his com…