Born in Shanghai, China on April 26th, 1961, Chong Chen ("Joan" came along later) decided not to follow in her family's footsteps and study medicine, and instead attended the Shanghai Institute of Foreign Languages and the Shanghai Film Academy. While watching a film shoot on a school trip, famous Chinese director Xie Jin discovered Chen, and put her on the path to success.

Joan Chen made her directorial feature debut in 1998 with Xiu Xiu: The Sent Down Girl. Acclaimed by critics nationwide, Richard Corliss of Time magazine described the film as miraculous while Jami Bernard at the New York Daily News called it a stellar directing debut.

Xiu Xiu: The Sent Down Girl won an astounding seven Golden Horse (Taipei Oscar) Awards for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Original Song and Best Music. The film was also the recipient of the Special Jury Award at the 1999 Paris Film Festival, and the winner of the Best Dramatic Feature at the 1998 Fort Lauderdale Film Festival. Nominated for the Golden Bear at the Berlin Film Festival, Xiu Xiu: The Sent Down Girl was also selected for the 1998 Telluride International Film Festival, the 1998 San Francisco Film Festival and the 1998 Hawaii International Film Festival.

Born in Shanghai, China, Chen was selected for the Actors' Training Program by the Shanghai Film Studio in 1975. Audiences first saw her in the movie Youth, directed by the famous veteran director Xie Jin. Her second film, Little Flower, won her the Best Actress Award in China in 1980.

Chong left China for America in 1981 to study filmmaking and graduated with honors from the California State University, Northridge. She began her U.S. acting career in 1985, and has starred in multiple feature films, including Taipan, the Academy Award-winning The Last Emperor, Blood of Heroes, Turtle Beach, Twin Peaks, Golden Gate, On Deadly Ground, and Heaven and Earth. In 1993, she returned to her hometown of Shanghai and starred in Stanley Kwan's Red Rose, White Rose, which later won her the Best Actress Award in Taiwan and The Film Critics Award in Hong Kong.