Born in China, she moved to the United Kingdom in 2002, where she began writing in English. Translation, memory, identity, displacement and alienation are central themes in a body of work that moves between languages, cultures and artistic disciplines. She is the author of around ten books, including Breve diccionario chino-inglés para enamorados (2010), UFO in Her Eyes (2009), I Am China (2014), A Lover’s Discourse (2020), Radical: A Life of My Own (2021), My Battle of Hastings (2024) and Call Me Ishmaelle (2025). She was named by Granta as one of the best British novelists of her generation and has received the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize.

As a filmmaker, she has directed fiction features and documentaries including She, a Chinese (2009), which won an award at the Locarno Film Festival, UFO in Her Eyes (2011), Five Men and a Caravaggio (2018) and Three Ways of Returning (2025).