Chang Tao-fan (1897-) held senior government and party posts at Nanking and Chungking and accompanied Chiang Kai-shek to India in 1942. In Taiwan, he was president of the Legislative Yuan from 1952 to 1959.

A native of Panhsien, Kweichow, Chang Tao-fan came from a family which was noted in Kweichow for its scholarly tradition. It had produced six chin-shih during the century or so prior to the birth of Chang Tao-fan. Chang's grandfather died at the age of 32, leaving his family destitute. Chang's father, although a well-read man, failed to pass the state examinations and was unable to serve in the government as many of his ancestors had done. Chang Taofan studied the Chinese classics under his father's tutelage. In 1911, when he was a student at the local higher primary school, he became acquainted with the radical intellectual currents of the time by reading periodicals sent to him by relatives who were studying in Japan. Unable to continue his formal education after his graduation in 1914, Chang Tao-fan, then 18, accepted a teaching appointment in February 1915 at a private primary school in the neighboring P'u-an county. Having been graduated first in his class, he was capable of teaching such varied courses as mathematics, music, drawing, and calligraphy; only physical education was difficult for him.

In this period Chang became indirectly involved with clandestine political activities. His seventh uncle was a member of the Chung-hua ko-ming-tang, which was engaged in a campaign against Yuan Shih-k'ai. Chang was entrusted with the local membership roster and with other party documents. After the death of Yuan Shih-k'ai in 1916, Chang, in order to continue his schooling, accompanied his fifth uncle, a member of the Senate, to Peking. On his way to the capital, Chang stopped at Tientsin to visit his uncle's friend Yen Fan-sun, who persuaded him to study at the Nankai Middle School.

In June 1917 the Parliament was dissolved. Chang's uncle, having lost his senatorship, was no longer able to support his nephew's schooling. Fortunately, Chang's fifth granduncle, director for Suiynan and Chahar of the state monopoly of tobacco and wine, found an opening for Chang in the Paotow branch office. After working for about two years in Paotow, during which time he took correspondence courses in English and Japanese, Chang Tao-fan decided to resume his studies in Nankai. His return coincided with the May Fourth Movement, and he spent more time in popular agitation than in the classroom. Attracted by the work-and-study plan initiated by Wu Chih-hui (q.v.) and others, Chang determined to go to France. Despite the objections of his granduncle, he left Shanghai for Paris in November 1919. While waiting for the ship to sail, he and 1 7 fellow student passengers were granted an interview by Sun Yat-sen at his residence in Shanghai.

After arriving at London on 1 January 1920, the work-and-study students were advised by Chinese who were studying in England that it would be difficult for anyone who was not fluent in French to find employment in France. Accordingly, Chang decided to study in England. With financial assistance from his granduncle, he entered a private high school in Manchester for a term and then went to a Roman Catholic college in London. In 1921 he became the first Chinese student to matriculate at the Slade School of Fine Arts of the University of London. After his graduation in 1924, he went to Paris, where he studied at the Ecole Nationale Superieure des Beaux-Arts for two years. While in London, Chang Tao-fan helped to organize a worker-merchant-student association which aimed to improve the social and recreational life of the overseas Chinese community. In the winter of 1922 his determination not to become involved in politics was undermined, and he was persuaded by Liu Chi-wen and Shao Yuan-ch'ung (q.v.) to join the Kuomintang. In the following year he was elected director general of the London branch of the Kuomintang. In April 1926 Chang left Europe for China, arriving in Shanghai at the end of June. There he shocked conservative Chinese by giving a public lecture on the nude—which resulted in an order for his arrest.

Liu Chi-wen, the director of the peasantworker bureau in the Canton government invited Chang to participate in the work there, and Chang left Shanghai for the heady atmosphere of revolutionary Canton. Chang Tao-fan was Liu's secretary for a period before becoming acting director of the peasant-worker bureau in the autumn of 1926 after Liu was transferred to the headquarters of the National Revolutionary Army. In November 1926, Ch'en Kuo-fu (q.v.), who was responsible for party organization, met Chang at a conference and asked him to direct Kuomintang activities in Kweichow. Delighted at the prospect of visiting his home province, Chang accepted the assignment and went to Kweichow in January 1927. At that time Kweichow was ruled by Chou Hsi-ch'eng, an autocratic warlord. Chou Hsi-ch'eng prohibited Kuomintang activities in his domain and had Chang arrested on 3 May 1927 when he refused to give up his secret telegraphic code. When Chang was released on 18 September 1927, none of his friends dared to shelter him. After hospitalization to treat the wounds inflicted on him by his jailers, Chang left Kweichow in December for Shanghai.

In February 1928, on the recommendation of Ch'en Kuo-fu and Liu Chi-wen, Chang was appointed secretary of the Kuomintang's central organization bureau, which was controlled by Ch'en Kuo-fu. In September, Chang was appointed secretary general of the Nanking municipal government. Chang represented Nanking at the Third National Congress of the Kuomintang, which was held in Nanking in March 1929. He was elected an alternate member of the Central Executive Committee. In a dispute over electoral procedure Chang aroused the ire of Hu Han-min (q.v.), and consequently had to leave his Nanking post to become a member of the Kuomintang committee for party affairs in Kiangsu province. In the summer of 1929 Chang Tao-fan agreed to serve as dean of studies at Tsingtao University. He stayed in Shantung for only a few months, however. Then he became head of the department of education in the Chekiang provincial government. Some months later, Ch'en Li-fu (q.v.), the brother of Ch'en Kuo-fu and the director of the Kuomintang organization department, asked Chang to serve as his assistant director. Thus, Chang commuted between Nanking and Hangchow in his dual capacity as government and party official. When the Japanese irivaded Manchuria in September 1931 irate students wrecked Chang's home at Hangchow in protest against the non-resistance policy of the Nanking government. Forced to be the scapegoat, Chang resigned all his posts in Chekiang and moved to Nanking, where he served Chiang Kai-shek in a personal capacity. On 29 November 1932 Chang Tao-fan was appointed vice minister of communications, the first of a series of vice ministerial posts which he held. At the Fifth National Congress of the Kuomintang in 1935, he was elected a member of the Central Executive Committee. In the autumn of 1936 he moved from the ministry of communications to the ministry of interior. In January 1938 he followed his political patron, Ch'en Li-fu, to the ministry of education and also served as assistant director to Ch'en Li-fu in the Kuomintang central social affairs bureau. Later in 1938 he was appointed senior member of the cultural movement committee of the Kuomintang central propaganda bureau. In August 1939 he was appointed dean of the Central Political Institute, the highest training school for Kuomintang cadres. In 1941 he was promoted to vice chancellor and directed the school, which was nominally headed by Chiang Kai-shek.

In February 1942 Chang accompanied Chiang Kai-shek on his visit to India for meetings with Gandhi and Nehru. Madame Chiang served as interpreter at the talks, and Chang was the recorder. Chang Tao-fan himself had three long conversations with Nehru concerning the organization and strength of the Congress party in India. On 7 December 1942 Chang took over the post of director of the Kuomintang central propaganda bureau. In October 1943 he was transferred to the central overseas bureau of the party. When the Japanese army approached Kweiyang in December 1943, Chang returned to his home province to rally the people against the invaders.

In 1945 Chang reached the top level of the Kuomintang hierarchy when he became a member of the standing committee of the Central Executive Committee. He was elected a member of the Legislative Yuan in 1948 and became its president in 1952 after the move to Taiwan. He resigned the presidency in 1959, but retained his membership in the yuan. Chang Tao-fan also played a leading role in cultural, literary, and artistic organizations in Nationalist China. He occasionally acted in amateur theater productions and wrote and translated several plays. These include Self- Redemption, Honeymoon Trip, Who's at Fault, Secret Code (a film script), The Last Stronghold, and Unalloyed Patriotism. All of these were published at Shanghai between 1934 and 1937. Chang also translated W. G. Constable's Treatise on Modern European Painting and Allen Thornhill's The Forgotten Factor.