She is currently a research associate at Columbia University's Weatherhead East Asian Institute.

[1] Fincher was born in British Hong Kong, to a Chinese-American mother with roots in Xiamen, Fujian, and a European-American father.

[2][3] She grew up in Canberra after her parents received tenures at Australian National University.

[2] Her mother, a linguist, and her father, a historian, were both Chinese scholars, and she spent a significant portion of her childhood travelling to and from China.

For her reports on women and feminism in China, Fincher won the Society of Professional Journalists' Sigma Delta Chi award.