We grieve the passing of Mawenzi author Lien Chao (1950 – 2025) October 1, 2025 – Posted in: Uncategorised
It is with profound sadness that we announce the passing of Mawenzi House author Lien Chao in Toronto.
Writer, poet, critic, inter-arts artist, and arts educator and promoter, Lien Chao was born in Hangzhou, China, in 1950 and grew up during the tumultuous period of the Cultural Revolution led by Mao Zedong. She came to Canada in 1984 for graduate studies at York University, Toronto and became a Canadian citizen a few years later. Her PhD thesis was published in 1997 as Beyond Silence: Chinese-Canadian Literature in English, a historical survey that became a ground-breaking contribution to Canadian literature, winning the Gabrielle Roy Prize for Canadian Criticism that year.
Lien recounted her years of growing up during the Cultural Revolution in her memoir Tiger Girl: Hu Nü (2001), offering the reader a glimpse of recent Chinese history. In Toronto, she immersed herself in promoting Chinese Canadian art and culture, working with artists across different disciplines. She was a director of the Canadian Foundation for Asian Culture (Ontario), and Curator of the Asian Heritage Month Art Exhibitions from 2008 onwards. During the COVID-19 shutdown, and continuing afterwards, she created, curated, and organized numerous live-streaming virtual presentations with Asian Heritage Month artists. She and Irene Hung taught Chinese Brush Painting online to thousands of secondary school students in the Toronto district school boards. These classes continued in person after COVID, during which she brought Chinese calligraphy and an introduction to Eastern philosophy to thousands of students across Toronto.
A bilingual writer, Lien wrote three collections of poems in English and Chinese, and two short-story collections in English. Her poetry came to her in English, which she translated into Chinese. She also co-edited an anthology, Strike the Wok: An Anthology of Contemporary Chinese Canadian Fiction, with Jim Wong- Chu. As an inter-art artist, Lien believed in collaborating with artists of different disciplines in joint projects. Several of her poems were set to music composed by Vincent Ho and performed in Canada. Rejuvenation: A Taoist Journey, was commissioned by the Toronto Symphony Orchestra and had its world premiere in 2017. Rejuvenation was also scheduled to be performed at the National Centre for the Performing Arts, Beijing, in March, 2020, but had to be cancelled due to the COVID pandemic.
Lien fought bravely against breast cancer diagnosed in 2019. She had just celebrated her 75th birthday a few weeks ago. Lien passed peacefully at her daughter’s home in Newmarket, Ontario. She is survived by her daughter Avianna Chao, Avianna’s husband Patrick Haynes, grandson Harry Haynes Chao, and her sister Nan Zhao.
Lien will be deeply missed and forever remembered for her prolific contributions to art across multiple mediums, her indomitable tiger spirit, and her fierce love of family