She graduated from the National Taiwan Normal University, and in 1994 came to the United States to study music composition.
[2] In 2006 she moved to Brandeis University as a composition faculty member, and as of 2022 she is the Victor and Gwendolyn Beinfield Professor of Music.
While at the University of California, Davis Chang co-directed Empyrean Ensemble where she as performed as a conductor or a pianist.
[8][better source needed] In 2018 the Boston Modern Orchestra Project premiered a twenty-minute long composition of her work.
[11] Between 2008-2009 Chang received multiple honors including a Guggenheim Fellowship,[6] the Copland House Residency Award,[12][13] the Charles Ives Prize from the American Academy of Arts and Letters,[14] Koussevitzky Music Foundation in the Library of Congress.