At this period of time, many other people did not have large apartments such as hers, classifying her as part of the upper class during the Cultural Revolution.

When she was 13, her father, a theater owner was falsely accused of counter-revolutionary crimes and was detained and forced to do hard labor by the Chinese government.

In 1998, Red Scarf Girl, a memoir of her life during the Cultural Revolution, was published and garnered a number of awards.

Following the success of Red Scarf Girl, Ji-li continued writing books,[1] notably The Magical Monkey King, a retelling of a traditional Chinese tale about the beginning of the trickster Monkey King's journey.

She graduated from the University of Hawaiʻi and began working as an operations analyst for a hotel chain.