No, I don't think keeping a puppy in a crate all day is normal at all. In fact, I think it is awful.
However, it all depends on your circumstances.
Do you have a house with access to a garden? Or do you live in an apartment.
If you live in a house, you should start to train the puppy immediately to newspaper on the floor by the back door, presumably in the kitchen with more paper by the door where the kitchen joins the next room. If you have a baby gate you could put it up between the kitchen and the room. In that way, you can keep the puppy off the carpet.
He is never going to learn not to spend a penny on the carpet unless he knows and is taught what is expected of him.
A puppy usually wants to spend a penny as soon as it wakes up. Also after it has been fed - the next thing is outside to spend a penny then told he is a good boy etc.
If you live in an apartment, I am not sure what to do. Others on the site you have raised a puppy in an appartment will be able to tell you how they coped. I have read that a Chow Chow can be trained to use a litter tray rather like a cat.
There is one thing for sure, this little chow boy is never going to learn if he is shut in a crate all day.
When my Milly was a baby chow, she was only six weeks old when we brought her home, she very quickly learnt that paper was for spending a penny on.
So take serious stock and work out an immediate and radical training programme for him.
If necessary, use the kitchen as a ' great bit crate ' if you see what I mean. Chow chows are usually very quick to become house-trained and he will learn very quickly - but you must be serious about it and put the effort in and it is all day effort, every day until he has got the message.
Good luck and keep in touch.