She was born Chen Chong in Shanghai, China, into a family of doctors (her grandparents were educated at Oxford and her parents were trained at Harvard). She grew up during the Cultural Revolution. At age 14, Chen was discovered on the school rifle range by Mao Zedong's wife Jiang Qing, as she was excelling at marksmanship. This led her to be selected for the Actors' Training Program by the Shanghai Read more...

Chen Chong first became famous in China for her performance in Zhang Zheng's Little Flower (Chinese: 小花; pinyin: XiÇŽo Huā) in 1979 for which she won the Hundred Flowers Award (Chinese: 百花; pinyin: BÇŽi Huā JiÇŽng), in which she played a revolutionary's daughter in pre-Maoist China, who falls in love with the wounded soldier whom she and her mother care for. Little Read more...

Chen married her second husband, cardiologist Peter Hui, on January 18, 1992. She was formerly married to actor Jimmy Lau from 1985 to 1990. Joan and her current husband have 2 daughters and live in San Francisco, but spend part of every year in Shanghai, China with Joan's family, so their daughters can be familiar with Chinese culture.

During her early years in California Chen attended California Read more...