Editing Lien Chan (section)

==Early life and education==
[[File:Yen Chia-kan 1964.jpg|thumb|Premier Yen Chia-kan officiates the wedding of Lien Chan  and Fang Yu]]
Lien Chan was born at Jenkins and Robertson Memorial Hospital in [[Xi'an]], [[Shaanxi Province]], [[Republic of China (1912-49)|China]] as the only child of Taiwanese father [[Lien Chen-tung]] and mainland Chinese mother Chao Lan-kun (趙蘭坤).<ref>{{Cite web |last=sina_mobile |date=2005-05-01 |title=连战出生西安第四医院 时称基督教广仁医院 |url=https://news.sina.cn/sa/2005-05-01/detail-ikknscsi6549189.d.html |access-date=2023-08-03 |website=news.sina.cn}}</ref> His paternal grandfather, [[Lien Heng]], was the writer of ''The General History of Taiwan'' (臺灣通史), a book that is often cited for the quote, "Taiwan's sorrow is that it has no history." His father, Lien Chen-tung, served as Minister of the Interior from 1960 to 1966, promoting local autonomy and maintaining close ties with the [[CC Clique]]. His mother, Chao Lan-kun, came from a prominent family in Shenyang and had Manchu ancestry. She graduated from [[Yenching University]].

Lien earned a [[bachelor's degree]] in [[political science]] from the [[National Taiwan University]] in 1957 and then pursued graduate studies in the United States, where he earned a [[Master of Arts]] in 1961 in international law and diplomacy and a [[Ph.D.]] in political science in 1965, both from the [[University of Chicago]]. His doctoral dissertation was titled, "The criticism of Hu Shih's thought in Communist China".<ref>{{Cite web |title=The criticism of Hu Shih's thought in Communist China {{!}} WorldCat.org |url=https://search.worldcat.org/title/criticism-of-hu-shihs-thought-in-communist-china/oclc/6660192?referer=di&ht=edition |access-date=2025-04-05 |website=search.worldcat.org |language=en}}</ref> He married former Miss Republic of China [[Fang Yu]] the same year he received his doctorate.<ref>{{cite news|last1=Eyton|first1=Laurence|title=Would-be heir to whose legacy?|url=http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/insight/archives/2000/03/14/0000027790|access-date=8 February 2017|newspaper=[[Taipei Times]]|date=14 March 2000|archive-date=February 11, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170211075347/http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/insight/archives/2000/03/14/0000027790|url-status=live}}</ref> Later, in 2012, Lien served as a trustee on the [[Board of Trustees]] of the University of Chicago.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://trustees.uchicago.edu/board/honorary.shtml|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120301184637/http://trustees.uchicago.edu/board/honorary.shtml|url-status=dead|archive-date=2012-03-01|title=Honorary Trustees and Trustees Emeriti &#124; The University of Chicago|date=March 1, 2012|access-date=July 9, 2022}}</ref>

Lien held assistant professorships of political science at the [[University of Wisconsin–Madison]] from 1966 to 1967 and the [[University of Connecticut]] from 1967 to 1968. He returned to Taiwan in 1968 to become visiting professor of political science at the National Taiwan University, serving as chairman of the Political Science Department and dean of the Graduate Institute of Political Science the following year.