Dissatisfied with being a widow, Shen remarried but found her second husband, Xu Qingyu (), too much of a male chauvinist; the relationship ended in divorce in 1931. After her father's company filed for bankruptcy, Shen moved to Shanghai where she was recruited as assistant editor and Japanese translator for the Chinese-language current affairs journal Shishi leibian () published by the Zhongshan Culture and Education Bureau. In Shishi and elsewhere, Shen would occasionally use the pseudonym "Chenyan" or simply sign off as "Zi". In Shanghai, while keenly following the May Fourth Movement, Shen acquainted herself with leftists and Chinese Communist Party (CCP) members alike; with their support, she became founding editor of the women's magazine Funü shenghuo () in 1935. The magazine ran anti-Japanese propaganda and rallied Chinese women to support the National Salvation Movement; Shen herself was the deputy secretary general of the executive committee of the Association of Shanghai Women's National Salvation Movement.
