Dr. Chan grew up in Guangzhou, China, and is a graduate of Chung Chi College of the Chinese University of Hong Kong, majoring in mathematics. A member of the Dramatists Guild in the U.S., she was a columnist for The Evening Post in Hong Kong from 1986 to 1987. An English version of her 1985 drama, Before the Dawn-Wind Rises, commissioned by the Hong Kong Council for the 10th Asian Festival, has been included in An Oxford Anthology of Chinese Contemporary Drama published by the Oxford University Press in 1997. In 1993, she was featured in Reference Asia: Asia's Who's Who of Men & Women of Achievement; and in 1997, in Who's Who in Hong Kong's Industrial and Commercial Enterprises published in Changsha, China.

An honoree at "An All-Star Salute to Chinese American Cultural Pioneers" at City Hall, New York City in July 1993 (with July 9, 1993, named Joanna Chan Day in the City of New York), and a recipient of a 1994 Distinguished Alumni Award from Teachers College, Columbia University, where she earned her M.A., M.Ed., and Ed.D. degrees, majoring in Theater/Communications, Dr. Joanna Chan has been a prolific playwright and stage directed in China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Canada and the U.S., having directed nearly 50 stage productions in the past three decades. Co-founder and Artistic Director of the Four Seas Players (1970-77; 83-92) in New York City; Artistic Director of the Hong Kong Repertory Theater (1986-90), she co-founded the Yangtze Repertory Theater of America in 1992 to produce works for and by Asian artists.