She grew up in Oak Park, a suburb of Chicago, as the daughter of Chinese professors who met in the US.
[3] After graduating from Brown, Chan moved to New York City to work as an editor of nonfiction reviews for Publishers Weekly.
[citation needed] Chan's debut novel, The School for Good Mothers, was published in 2022 by Simon & Schuster.
The dystopian novel was inspired by a nonfiction New Yorker article in which a mother lost parental rights.
[3] Chan spent three years living in South Philadelphia with her husband and daughter, providing material for her debut novel.