Ying Chen was born in Shanghai, China. She obtained a degree in French language and literature from Shanghai University in 1983 and worked as a translator and interpreter before emigrated to Montreal in 1989. Chen completed an M.A. at McGill University in 1991. She published her first novel, La mémoire de l’eau, in French in 1992 and has published many others since then including: Les lettres chinoises, Immobile, Le champ dans la mer, Querelle d’un squelette avec son double and Le mangeur. L’ingratitude, published in 1995, was translated into English and published in both Canada and the United States in 1998. It was also translated into Spanish, Serbian, Italian, and Chinese. Chen now lives in Vancouver, B.C.