Lien Chao is an award winning creative writer, poet and literary critic. She came from China 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 bilingual (Chinese and English) poetry collection, Maples and the Stream was published in 1999. Her third book, Tiger Girl (Hu Nu), is a creative memoir published in 2001. In 2003, she edited, along with Jim Wong-Chu, Stike the Wok: An Anthology of Contemporary Chinese Canadian Fiction. Her most recent work is a bilingual poetry collection, More Than Skin Deep published in the fall of 2004.

Two Months of Surprises: My Trip Back to China After 17 Years (Part One). This publication has been published in the CCS Networking March 2002 Newsletter (Canadian China Society). We have made it available online for your viewing pleasure.