本草中找生机
营养免疫学家陈昭妃
A Natural Success
Nutritional Immunologist Jau-Fei Chen
年纪虽轻，美国华裔科学家陈昭妃已经在科学界闯出一片天地，她从免疫学的研究出发，结合中国的本草知识，创立了「营养免疫学」。这门学科虽然新，却再次印证「预防重于治疗」这句老话的确历久弥新。
Although still young, Chinese-American scientist Jau-Fei Chen has already carved out a territory of her own. Starting with immunology and combining it with Chinese herbal medicine, she has created "nutritional immunology." Though a new field of study, its existence proves yet again the old adage that "an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure."
「我们的免疫系统就像军队一样，可以抵抗外来入侵的病菌。B 细胞会产生各式各样的武器——抗体，可以认出不同的敌人。巨噬细胞则像是清道夫，负责清除战死的细胞，吞噬细菌……」
"Our immune system is like an army, protecting us from invading pathogens. B-cells produce all kinds of weapons, antibodies, which recognize different invaders. Macrophages are like street cleaners, responsible for eliminating the corpses of cells killed in battle, eating bacteria. . . "
在座无虚席的台北国际会议中心，一名年轻女子在讲台上侃侃而谈，再配合多媒体制成的图表，介绍免疫系统的重要及调理方法。而让听众印象深刻的，除了这些知识，恐怕就是讲者本身了。
In a packed Taipei International Convention Center, a young woman with an array of charts and graphs speaks confidently from the stage. She is explaining the importance of the immune system and how to care for it. The audience is impressed not only with her knowledge, but also with her person.
「她怎么这么年轻？」台下听众窃窃私语。光看她鲜丽耀眼的外表，好像跟一般人印象中的科学家不太一样。
"She's so young!" whisper listeners seated in the auditorium. And her eye-catching beauty contrasts with most people's expectations of what a scientist looks like.
獎項一籮筐
A bucketful of awards
出生于台湾嘉义，十岁时随家人移民海外的陈昭妃，台湾人对她可能有点陌生，不过她在美国华人社会中名气可不小。她今年才三十四岁 (1997)，不但拥有美国杨百翰大学的微生物学博士，更在十年前就创立了丞燕国际公司，打着「营养免疫学」的招牌，生产从本草提炼的健康产品。短短几年内，她的公司从美国扩展到法国、马来西亚、台湾、日本、韩国等十一个国家，今年更进军上海。
Born in Chiayi, Chen emigrated with her family when she was 10 years old. Though she may be unfamiliar to Taiwanese, her name is very well known in the American Overseas Chinese community. The 34-year-old (1997) Chen not only holds a doctorate in microbiology from Brigham Young University, she also founded E. Excel International ten years ago. The company, which makes health products from extracts of Chinese medicinal herbs, has made a name for nutritional immunology. In just a few short years, the company has expanded from America to 11 countries including France, Malaysia, Taiwan, Japan and Korea. This year, its products will even invade Shanghai.
她曾被世界日报选为全美一百位杰出海外华人之一；一九九三年得到海外华人第二届青创楷模奖；一九九六年她当选全美杰出妇女，加州参议院把当年的三月八日定为「陈昭妃日」。
She has been selected as one of the World News Organization's 100 Outstanding Overseas Chinese in America. In 1993, she received the Second Overseas Chinese Entrepreneur of the Year Award. In 1996, she was selected as one of America's Outstanding Women and California's Legislature named March 8 of that year Jau-Fei Chen Day.
今年 (1997) 一月她获得美国青商会颁发「全美十大杰出青年奖」，这是青商会颁奖五十九年以来，第一次有中国人获奖。从一百多位候选人脱颖而出的十位得奖者，有人致力于防范儿童性侵害或推广环保，也有参议员、空军飞官等。陈昭妃得奖的原因是她多年来在世界各地推广营养免疫学，并创立国际机构制造及促销相关食品，透过营养教育帮助大众保持健康。
In January of this year (1997), she was named one of the Ten Outstanding Young Americans by the US Junior Chamber of Commerce, the first time in the award's 59-year history that it has been given to a person of Chinese descent. The ten award recipients were selected from more than 100 candidates. The winners included a person devoted to protecting children from sexual abuse, another engaged in promoting the environmental protection cause, a legislator and an Air Force pilot. Chen was selected for her many years of effort to promote nutritional immunology around the globe, her creation of an international organization to produce and market related food products, and her contribution to health care through education about nutrition.
除了商业和社会服务类的奖项，陈昭妃还曾在一九九二年获得「马丁帝拉库兹奖」，相当于本草学界的最高荣誉。在去年 (1996) 世界传统医学大会上她一举获得最佳著作奖，并以仙人掌产品获得最佳产品奖。
In addition to business and community service awards, in 1992, Chen also received the Martin de la Cruz Award, herbal medicine's highest honor. And last year (1996), at the annual Conference of World Traditional Medicine, she received awards for best product (for a cactus-derived product) and for best written work.
在这些耀眼的光环下，营养免疫学的观念究竟是什么呢？陈昭妃又是如何投入其中的研究？
What is this nutritional immunology which has received such numerous accolades? And how did Chen become involved with this research?
现代医学的反动
A reaction to modern medicine
营养免疫学的道理其实并不难懂，强调的就是「预防重于治疗」。陈昭妃解释说，人体内的衡定状态与免疫系统息息相关，而影响免疫能力的关键就在于营养。不均衡的营养会使免疫细胞产生失调，使身体容易受到细菌或病毒侵犯，也容易导致慢性疾病。
The thinking behind nutritional immunology is really very simple, emphasizing that an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. Chen explains that the body's internal balance and the immune system are intimately connected. Moreover, nutrition strongly affects the immune system's capabilities. An unbalanced diet impairs the effectiveness of immune cells, making the body more vulnerable to bacterial and viral invasions and to chronic ailments.
这个看似常识的学说，却是缘于对现代医学的反动。在过去一百多年来，现代医学一直追求更快更好的药物去抑制细菌与病毒，例如在一九二八年发明的抗生素，常是医师与病人眼中的特效药。但是「道高一尺，魔高一丈」，抗生素可以消灭百分之九十九的细菌，却有百分之一的细菌会被「操练」成超强细菌，到最后没有药品可以对付它。
This seemingly common-sense point of view is actually a reaction to modern medicine. For more than 100 years, modern medicine has pursued the development of faster, more effective methods of fighting off bacteria and viruses. For example, in 1928, antibiotics, commonly viewed by both doctors and patients as an especially effective medication, were developed. But pathogens are keeping pace with such improvements in medication. Antibiotics may destroy 99 percent of invading bacteria, but the remaining one percent are "trained" by the drug, becoming "super bacteria." Ultimately, no medication is effective in eliminating these "super bacteria."
陈昭妃举例，本来只寄生在老鼠身上的汉他病毒现在已经转移到人身上，四十八小时就让人发病身亡。而本来以为绝迹的肺结核，也已卷土重来，不少医界人士担心，甚至连疫苗都无法治疗。
Chen gives other examples of problems facing modern medicine. The Hanta virus, which originally only afflicted rodents, has now become a threat to humans. This virus kills its host within 48 hours of infection. And tuberculosis, a disease once thought to have been eliminated, has returned. Many in the medical community are concerned that even vaccines will no longer be effective in preventing many illnesses.
至于让人谈之色变的癌症，由细胞本身病变引起，据统计在台湾已经连续十五年高居十大死因榜首。科学家研究得病的原因，发现除了基因遗传，最主要是人自身的免疫系统出了问题，无法有效抵挡外敌。而引起世界恐慌的爱滋病，由 HIV 病毒引起病人后天的免疫系统不全，至今科学家还在埋首苦找治疗的方法。
Then there is cancer, the mere mention of which causes many to pale, which begins with changes in the body's own cells. According to statistics, for the last 15 years, cancer has been the leading cause of death in Taiwan. Scientists researching its causes have found that after congenital factors, the most important factor is problems in the victim's own immune system which have made it unable to ward off foreign invaders. And then there is AIDS, which has created world-wide panic. The HIV virus which causes it disables its victim's immune system. Scientists are making an all-out effort to find a cure.
种种僵局使医学界开始反思，不能再只是「头痛医头，脚痛医脚」，而应该找出整体病因对症下药；他们也开始把注意力放到人体自身的免疫系统。
Such impasses have caused the medical community to begin rethinking its approach to illness. Instead of continuing to "treat the head if the head hurts, treat the foot if the foot hurts," the new thinking is that treatment should be directed at the causes of illness in the system as a whole. The medical community is also beginning to look to the body's own immune system for answers.
从治疗到预防
From cure to prevention
尽管这二十年来免疫学逐渐热门，尤其是近十年因为爱滋病的猖獗，更受人重视，但在医学上还算是一门新兴学科。在六○年代研究初期免疫学主要用在疫苗的研究，也就是把处理过的病菌或病毒注射到人体里，刺激免疫系统产生相应的抗体，「认出敌人的面目」。之后科学家慢慢扩及基础研究，认识人体的免疫系统除了抵抗外来病因，清除体内废物，也可以修补体内组织。 「免疫系统如果运作正常，强过任何药物，」陈昭妃说。在全民健保蔚为趋势的现代国家，预防医学可以减低一个国家的医疗费用，这也是它日益受重视的原因。
In spite of the growing attention given to immunology over the last 20 years (and especially, given the AIDS epidemic, over the past 10) it remains a relatively new field of medical study. In the early years of research in the 1960s, efforts were devoted to research on vaccines. Vaccination, the injecting of dead or weakened bacteria or viruses into the body, stimulates the immune system to produce antibodies, allowing the body to "know the face of the enemy." More recently, scientists have moved on to more fundamental research, discovering that in addition to defending the body from foreign invaders, the immune system gets rid of wastes and can repair internal systems. Further, "If it is operating normally, the immune system is more powerful than any medication," says Chen. With modern countries moving towards national health insurance, preventive medicine is receiving increasing attention because it can reduce a country's health care expenditures.
那么营养免疫学这观念又是怎么产生的？虽然它听起来像老生常谈，陈昭妃也相信一定有人想过两者的关连，只是她首先加以条理化而已。
So how did the idea of nutritional immunology come into being? Although it sounds like common sense (Chen herself is sure that others must have seen the connection between the two), it was Chen who first expressed the relationship in a systematic way.
陈昭妃念的本来就是免疫学，她在十六岁那年就进了犹他州的杨百翰大学，然后一路保送念研究所，硕士念免疫学，二十六岁那年就拿到微生物学博士。
Chen's original field of study was immunology. She entered Brigham Young at the age of 16 and from there went directly on to graduate school, receiving her Master's degree in immunology. At 26, she completed her PhD in microbiology.
她在博士阶段从事癌症药物的研究，「做了十年却很失望，」她说。因为化学疗法的成效有限，药物在摧毁癌细胞的同时，也会把健康的细胞一并破坏。她看到太多癌症患者接受化疗的痛苦，对当时自己的研究方向起了怀疑，而转向探讨病人的病情。
While working on her PhD, she was involved with research on cancer medications. "It was ten years of disappointment," she says. The efficacy of chemotherapies is limited because at the same time the drugs destroy the cancerous cells, they also destroy healthy cells. Seeing the suffering of cancer victims undergoing chemotherapy, she began to have doubts about the direction of the research she was doing, eventually giving it up to investigate the condition of the patients.
而她再往前一步，从治疗推回预防，「如果让营养滋养免疫系统，使身体能预防疾病侵扰，应该比身体出毛病再去找医生更重要。」陈昭妃发现癌症的成因与饮食习惯很有关系，肉类如果吃太多，动物的蛋白质和胆固醇在人体里会产生一种荷尔蒙，降低免疫系统的功能。
Going one step further, she changed her focus from looking for a cure to prevention. "If we could nourish the immune system to enable the body to ward off an invasion of pathogens, that would be even better than going to see a doctor after one is already sick." Chen discovered that the causes of cancer were closely related to diet. If a person eats too much meat, the animal protein and cholesterol cause the production of a hormone within the body which impairs the function of the immune system.
因此她的营养免疫学专门以植物为研究对象。 「植物中含有很多营养素，也含有许多『细胞化学物质』(phytochemicals)，可以强化免疫功能，也可以抑制肿瘤及癌细胞的扩散。」黄豆就是很好的例子。
For this reason, her nutritional immunology research has focused exclusively on plants. "Plants have a lot of nutrients as well as phytochemicals. These strengthen the immune system and limit the growth and dispersion of tumors and cancerous cells." Soybeans are a good example of such a plant.
古老的中国药方
An ancient Chinese pharmacy
以本草为研究重点，不免令人好奇，这与她身为中国人有没有关连？陈昭妃说身为中国人，对中药多少有点接触，不过就研究方向来说，她觉得《本草纲目》等典籍记载的多半是药用植物，她要找的则是食用植物，「传统智慧只做为参考」。而且中国的药方记载往往点到为止，比较笼统，要将植物作为营养配方，必须靠实验精确的数据。
People can't help but wonder if her choice of medicinal herbs as the focus of her research is related to her being Chinese. To this Chen says that being Chinese, she had been exposed to Chinese medicines. But as for her research, she says that works such as A Compendium of Medicinal Herbs focus largely on the medicinal uses of plants, while what she is looking for are edible plants. She says, "Traditional knowledge only gives you something to consider." Moreover, Chinese pharmacological works are often incomplete and rather unclear. She says that to find plants with value as nutritional supplements, she still must rely on accurate experimental data.
在实验室里，第一步要先检查植物有没有毒性，然后研究它含有哪些对人体有益的营养素，份量又有多少。例如柑橘可以提炼出一百多种营养素，而沙漠的常客仙人掌竟有数以千计的营养素。采收的时机也是关键之一，「灵芝其实越嫩越好，千年灵芝只是武侠小说创造出来的神话，」陈昭妃笑说。使用的部位也很重要，家常的丝瓜很有营养，但其实最精华的部位是藤蔓流出的丝瓜汁。
In the laboratory, the first step is to test plants for toxicity. After this, research into which nutrients beneficial to humans they may possess, and how much of them, may begin. For example, more than 100 nutrients can be extracted from mandarin oranges, while more than 10,000 can be found in a cactus. The time at which the plants are harvested is also critical. "In the case of Ganoderma lucidum, the younger the better. Thousand-year-old Ganoderma lucidum is just a creation of kung-fu novels," she says with a laugh. Which portion of the plant is used is also very important. The fruit of the common loofah is very nutritious, but the best part of it is the sap from the vines.
虽然陈昭妃并不是完全由中国传统知识出发，然而营养免疫学能得到肯定，又让她频获奖项，其实与近年西方医学所遇到的瓶颈，以及中国传统医学重新受重视有关。
Although Chen has not based her research entirely on traditional Chinese lore, the bottleneck in which Western medicine has found itself stuck in recent years and the resurgence in interest in traditional Chinese medicine both have certainly contributed to the recognition of nutritional immunology as a legitimate field of inquiry and the many awards Chen has won.
食物是最好的医药
Food is the best medicine
台大主治医师，免疫学博士孙安迪说，西方医学近年来已经走到一个瓶颈，为了求突破，回头来向中国传统医学看齐。在这种趋势下，陈昭妃以西方免疫学为基础，结合中国的本草知识，他认为是「有眼光」。
Sun An-ti, a physician at National Taiwan University Hospital with a PhD in immunology, says that in recent years Western medicine has hit a bottleneck. Seeking a breakthrough, people are turning to the study of traditional Chinese medicine. Against this background, he feels Chen's bringing Chinese herbal medicine in on top of a foundation of Western immunology is "visionary."
孙安迪也指出，古人虽然没有「免疫」这个字眼﹐但是「扶正祛邪」的观念中，「扶正」就是增加免疫力，「祛邪」则是排除体内毒素，除去会使人发病的自由基。 「如果能做到这两点，百分之八十的疾病就不会沾身了，」他说。
Dr. Sun also notes that, though the ancients lacked the word "immune," they did have the concept of "rectifying the root and eliminating the bad." Rectifying the root means, in modern terms, increasing immunity, while eliminating the bad means removing toxins from the body, thus pre-empting illness. "If these two points can be practiced, 80% of illnesses would never get to the body in the first place," he says.
德育护专校长杨乃彦则从营养学的角度出发，得到类似的结论。 「食疗养生」、「药食同源」，本来就是中国固有观念。由于西医的特效药对慢性病的疗效有限，转而求助于传统的预防医学概念，不用化学药物而用本草植物来调理身体。
Jack Yang, president of the Deh Yu Junior College of Nursing, who looks at this issue from the point of view of nutrition, reaches a similar conclusion. China has long had the concepts "food can treat illness and build up the life force," and "food and medicine come from the same source." Because Western medicine is limited in effectiveness against chronic illnesses, help is being sought in traditional concepts of preventive medicine, using herbs to restore balance to the body rather than turning to pharmaceuticals.
「以前人们认为食物能提供营养素和满足食欲，最近研究则开始重视食物中特殊成份的保健功能，」杨乃彦说，中国食养文化中的草本食品正是特殊保健成份的重要来源。
"In the past people thought of food mainly in terms of providing nutrition and satisfying their appetite. But recent research is starting to focus on the health functions of particular ingredients in food," says Yang. The herbal foods in traditional Chinese dietary culture are an important source of special healthful ingredients.
其实在这个理念上，东西方并无冲突。早在两千五百年前，西方医学之父希波克拉底斯就曾说过，「你的食物就是你最好的医药」。而西谚不是也说「每天一粒苹果，远离医生」吗？
In fact, there is no conflict between East and West about these ideas. As early as 2500 years ago, Hippocrates, the father of Western medicine, said "Let food be your medicine, and medicine be your food." And isn't there a Western saying, "an apple a day keeps the doctor away"?
散播教育种子
Sowing the seeds of education
为什么陈昭妃不只满足于研究，而会踏上商业之路呢？她于一九八七年成立丞燕公司，一开始是纯研究机构，两年后开始制作产品，「最主要是想利用销售网路使研究资金有着落，」可是她强调，「教育和研究才是我的重心。」
Why wasn't Jau-Fei Chen just satisfied doing research? Why did she plunge into the business world? When she established E. Excel in 1987, it was at first purely a research organization. Two years later the company began to manufacture products, "mainly because we wanted to use sales to stabilize funding for research," says Chen. She emphasizes, "I have always placed the greatest importance on education and research."
在医学院的正规课程中，营养学与免疫学本来是两门不同的学科，免疫学是医学一环，营养师不一定要学免疫。在她的推动下，全美现在已经有十几所大学开设了「营养免疫学」。
In the typical medical school curriculum, immunology and nutrition studies are two separate courses. Immunology is considered a branch of medicine, while nutritionists need not study immunology. Through her efforts, more than 10 medical schools in the US have already established classes in "nutritional immunology."
她和研究员们也会应邀到犹他州的中、小学演讲，利用卡通和电脑动画描绘免疫细胞的作战经过，把吞噬细胞比做「垃圾车」，吃癌细胞比做「死亡之吻」，吸引儿童的兴趣。他们以多媒体制作「营养免疫学」的教学录影带，曾经在全美的公共电视频道播出。
She and her research staff are often invited to speak to middle and primary school students in the state of Utah. Using cartoons and computer animation, they depict how immune cells fight their enemies, and compare phagocytes to "garbage trucks." The kids are captivated. Chen and her staff have also produced a multi-media instructional video on nutritional immunology, which has been shown on nationwide public TV in the US.
研发方面，除了网罗许多免疫学家、营养学家与草本植物专家一起研究，她也与美国及中国大陆几所医学院建教合作，提供学生奖学金作相关研究计画，公司则利用学校实验室的昂贵设备和专业人才。
In terms of R&D, besides corralling numerous experts in immunology, nutrition, and herbal medicine, Chen also cooperates with many medical schools in the US and the PRC. She offers scholarships to students doing related research, while the company gets access to the schools' expensive lab equipment and experts.
同学变老师
Classmates into teachers
美国丞燕公司的总部设在犹他州的史普林威尔，离首府盐湖城开车大约四十分钟。犹他州四面环山，以自然美景闻名。我们造访时是三月中旬，冬天的尾巴还没过去，山顶上都是白皑皑的积雪。当地人都说可惜，等春天来了，一片青葱，风景绝美。
E. Excel headquarters is located in Springsville, Utah, about 40 minutes from the state capital of Salt Lake City. Utah is famous for its beautiful mountain scenery. We visited in mid-March, with winter not quite gone, and the mountains were snow-capped. Locals said it was too bad we didn't come in spring, when the scene turns green.
当地因为州政府对重工业管制严格，所以环境干净，许多健康食品公司不约而同在这里设厂。犹他州也是美国摩门教的大本营，州立法禁止色情电影和杂志。例如陈昭妃求学的杨百翰大学，就以「管教严格」为名，规定男生头发不能超过衣领，女生不能穿超短迷你裙，在崇尚个人自由的美国大学中独树一帜。
Because the state government has strict regulations for heavy industry, the environment is clean, and many health food companies have set up headquarters there. Utah is also the main home of the Mormon religion, and pornographic films and publications are banned. Brigham Young University, where Chen studied, is famous for its strict rules. Guys' hair cannot go below the shirt collar, and women may not wear super short skirts. This is very unusual in America, where most universities extol individualism.
这里是陈昭妃在海外的第二个家。她十岁时全家移民巴西，当时班上只有她一个中国人，陈昭妃一句话都听不懂，一度被老师认为学习能力有问题，被送到特殊教育学校。不过等到熟悉语言后，她就很快赶上进度，十五岁以第一名自高中毕业，然后随父母搬到美国犹他州。
This is Chen's second home abroad. When she was 10 her whole family moved to Brazil, where she was the only Chinese in her class. She couldn't understand a word, and was for a time thought to have a learning disability, so she was sent for special education. But after getting the hang of the language, she quickly caught up, and graduated first in her high school class at the age of 15. Later she came to Utah with her parents.
陈昭妃在杨百翰大学念博士时，便开始教授高级免疫学，当时许多学生年纪都比她大，她甚至教到自己的姊姊，当时姊妹在课堂上相认，两人都大吃一惊。她还记得教第一堂课时，坐在底下的座位不敢上讲台，隔壁的同学看到这位漂亮的中国娃娃，以为是新同学，还约她去看电影。
When Chen was studying for her PhD at BYU, she began to teach advanced immunology. At that time many of her students were older than her; she even taught her own older sister. When they met in class, both were very surprised. She still recalls that in the first class, she sat offstage, too nervous to go to the lectern. Seeing this beautiful Chinese girl, thinking she was a new classmate, the boy sitting next to her asked her out to a movie.
上有一个哥哥、三个姊姊的陈昭妃，究竟有什么过人之处，这么早就展露头角？陈妈妈说这个小女儿从小就没有让她费什么心。姊姊昭华则说，这个小妹妹好像不知不觉就长大了。
What is it about Chen, who has an older brother and three older sisters, that has allowed her to stand out while still so young? Mrs. Chen says that her daughter has never given her any cause for worry. Her sister Jau-hwa says that it seems as if her little sister has grown up without really being aware of it.
「爱念书，常常在实验室待到很晚，很会捉老鼠。」是陈妈妈对小女儿的形容。陈昭妃说科学是简单的学问，但为什么她念书可以这么容易？她想一想说，「一般人为学位念书，看问题时容易受到学位的压力。我对学位没有那么在乎，却一直念到博士，也许没有压力反而看得更全面，可以很快找出实验的问题。」
"She loves to learn. In school she often stayed in the lab very late, so she got really good at grabbing mice!" That is how Mom Chen describes her little girl. Jau-Fei Chen says that science is easy for her. But why? She thinks, then says, "Most people study just to get the diploma, and they feel pressure whenever they meet difficulties. I don't care so much about degrees, yet I have studied all the way through to my PhD. Maybe because I have not felt pressure, I have been able to see the larger picture, and thus quickly find the problems in experiments."
「她五岁学钢琴，老师本来不收，可是她的消化量很大，教到那里就学到那里，第三年就拿到冠军。」提起久远的往事，陈妈妈仍然掩不住得意。现在陈昭妃偶尔还弹琴，有难题想不出来时，就边弹萧邦、贝多芬，边想实验问题。
Mrs. Chen relates that Jau-Fei "went to study piano at the age of five. At first the teacher didn't want to take her on as a student, but she could absorb vast amounts. Whatever he taught she would learn, and by her third year she was winning prizes." Recalling these long ago events, Mrs. Chen still cannot conceal her pride. Jau-Fei still plays from time to time. When she has a difficult problem to mull over, she will sit at the piano, playing Chopin or Beethoven as she ponders.
妇唱夫随
A perfect match
她和先生张瑞康的认识，也可以归诸于琴缘。张瑞康是上海人，拿了奖学金来杨百翰大学专攻声乐，有一次歌唱比赛找不到伴奏，朋友临时请陈昭妃来代打，两人就这样认识了。不过，在那个两岸政治壁垒分明的时代，曾有台湾留学生警告她不可以和「共产党」交往。
You can chalk up her meeting with her husband, Zhang Ruikang, to the piano. A Shanghainese, Zhang won a scholarship to study voice at BYU. Once, unable to find an accompanist for a competition, a friend asked Chen to help out, and that is how they met. But in that era of confrontation between the two sides of the Taiwan Strait, Taiwan classmates warned her not to "fraternize with Communists."