Chen Zhenhe

At the age of 12 Chen “Darky” Zhenhe returned with his father from Java to Xiamen, the home of their ancestors. In 1926 he was admitted to the Shanghai Jinan National University to study business administration. That same year, Chen started playing football with the JNU team as a midfielder, winning eight college football championships in nine consecutive years. At the same time he played alongside local soccer star Li Huitang with the Loh Hwa team, touring Australia and Southeast Asia, and later joining the You-You team. In 1930 and 1934, with the Chinese team, Chen won the football tournament at the Far Eastern Games and was selected for the 1936 Olympic squad as one of the few players not playing for Hong Kong based teams.

Due to increasing Sino-Japanese tensions, and after the so-called “Battle of Shanghai” in 1932, Chen decided to switch to the Central Aviation School. He continued to play internationally and for his Shanghai teams. When war broke out in 1937 he was stationed in Hangzhou as an Air Force flying squadron leader. The Chinese Air Force had to fight the Japanese invasion with antique and worn-out aircraft. After finally had receiving new aircraft, Chen died when his plane crashed on the first flight from Xinjiang to Chengdu near Lanzhou, having had no time to escape the cockpit.