Lien Chao, born in China, came to Canada in 1984 to pursue her graduate studies at York University. She completed her M.A. in 1986 and Ph.D in English 1995.

Her first book, Beyond Silence: Chinese Canadian Literature in English published in 1997 by TSAR Publications, won 1997 Gabrielle Roy Award for Canadian Criticism. Being the first book-length study of Chinese Canadian writers, Beyond Silence broke new ground, challenging the existing CanLit. It systematically introduces Chinese Canadian writers into mainstream.

Her second book, Maples and the Stream published in 1999 is a long narrative poem written in English and Chinese. The bilingual format well reflects the cross-cultural journey taken by the poet and thousands of others in Canada.

Her third book, Tiger Girl (Hu Nu published in 2001 is a creative memoir. The book covers thirty-five years of recent Chinese history with a large cast of thirty some characters, mostly women. Written in episodes, Tiger Girl grips the reader emotionally with the unforgettable struggle for freedom and for a better life waged by two generations of Chinese women.

With Jim Wong-Chu, her co-editor, they brought out Strike the Wok: An Anthology of Contemporary Chinese Canadian Fiction in 2003. As the first Chinese Canadian anthology of the genre, the book includes three generations of Chinese Canadian writers, among whom are major Canadian literary award winners and emerging new writers.

Her latest book, More Than Skin Deep (2004) is a bilingual poetry book. The poems draw inspiration from individual and collective experience of Asian Canadians; among them, many are new immigrants. Keeping her bilingual format as a metaphor for cultural confrontation and adaptation in Canada, this new book collects a wide range of experience of being Asian.