Chen Botao is his real given name; he came from Siming County in Fujian Province. Erudite through paternal teaching and influence, his brothers and sisters all drew and painted; he studied Chinese painting first then the European painting. Combining his studies and modern skills, he eventually built his own style. When he moved to Taiwan, he started working as a bookkeeper for a fruit-preserve factory. He also did the packaging design for the factory occasionally. His elegant paintings soon attracted the business elite, because a tempting packaging would increase sales when a new economic boom was on the way following the end of the Second World War. So orders for packaging designs flooded in, and he had to resign from his bookkeeping job and became a professional designer.

      Once he was famous, children magazines also called him for contributions. He used many different names and modes to draw illustrations for magazines. In 1958 he released the knight-errant comic series Siaosia Longjyuanfong for the magazine Mofan Shaonain. It was so successful that he had to draw 400 pages per month to satisfy his fans. He did not exclusively draw for Mofan Shaonain, in 1963 he published a series Fonglin Enchou in the weekly magazine Manhua Jhoukan. In the 1960s his position in the knight-errant comic circle became supreme. His well-known works included Cianfo Shou, Huangshan Mosia, Pili Shentong. His job was so demanding that his physical condition could not always tolerate it. So once he became ill, he had to discard many cases.

       The comic censorship in 1966 stopped the growth of Taiwanese comics. The wusia comics were particularly damaged. Chen’s works published prior to 1963 were searched and recalled from book rental stores, chuzu shudian, and were burned. His books that survived the comic censorship became priceless for the comic series collectors.

      Apart from wusia comics, Chen was also famous for his history illustrations. With his rich skill and profound research work in history he was the one and only illustrator for historical stories in the 70s. Famous stories writers such as Kao Yang (Gao Yang), Chang Chun-yi (Jhang Jyunyi), Szuma Chungyuan (Sihma Jhongyuan) all had Chen Hai-hung’s illustrations in their books. In addition, well-known publications such as the Lianhe Bao daily, the Shihbao Jhoukan weekly, the Huangguan monthly, all together more than 20 magazines, printed his magnificent historic illustrations. He was even invited by institutes such as Dr. Sun Yat-sen Memorial and National Historic Gallery to paint when they needed historic illustrations for events. So he was rewarded by the Executive Yuan with Premier's Award in 1965 and by Jhongguo Hua Wuihuiwith Jinjyue Award. He died in November in 1994 at the age of 77, but his paintings, drawings and illustrations are scattered about without being properly collected.