Lien Chao has observed Chinese life through her work in the community as well as her interactions with Chinese immigrants in ESL classrooms. She came to Canada in 1984. Her first book, Beyond Silence: Chinese Canadian Literature in English, was published in 1997 and won the Gabrielle Roy Award for Canadian Criticism. Her works include Maples and the Stream and More Than Skin Deep (poetry), Tiger Girl (Hu Nu) (memoir), and Strike the Wok: An Anthology of Contemporary Chinese Canadian Fiction (anthology).