Lien Chao came to Canada in 1984 to pursue her graduate studies. She is the author of Beyond Silence: Chinese Canadian Literature in English (1997), winner of the Gabrielle Roy Prize for Canadian Criticism. Her publications also include Tiger Girl: Hu Nü (2001), a creative memoir about growing up in Mao’s China; Strike the Wok: An Anthology of Contemporary Chinese Canadian Fiction (2003), Ed. with Jim-Wong Chu; The Chinese Knot and other Stories (2008); and three collections of bilingual poetry, Maples and the Stream (1999), More Than Skin Deep (2004), and Salt in My Life (2019).

As an inter-art artist, Lien Chao enjoys collaborating with artists of different disciplines in joint projects. She has also published several bilingual art books on Chinese Brush Painting. She strongly believes in cultural sharing via interactions among Canadians of different racial, cultural and spiritual backgrounds.