Born in Nanjing, China, she began playing the Chinese violin ‘erhu’ at a very young age. She continued her violin studies at the Shanghai Conservatory of Music. At the age of seventeen, she began her composition studies and at the age of 22 became a member of the
Conservatory’s faculty. In 1988 she went to France to study composition and computer music at ircam (1990–91). She also entered the Paris Conservatory, where she studied with Gérard Grisey and Ivo Malec. She graduated with the First Prize (1994). She was the first composer of Chinese origin to win the Prix de Rome, thanks to which she lived and worked in the Villa Médicis from 1996 to 1998.
She was a professor of composition at the National Conservatory of Music of Cergy-Pontoise (2001–03). Presently she lives in Beijing.
She has received commissions from the French government, Radio France, as well as many festivals and ensembles. She has some
30 pieces to her credit. They have been performed at festivals and broadcast by radio stations in China, Japan, Europe, the United States and Canada. Several concerts devoted exclusively to her music have been organized in France and Italy. A cd with her works (recorded for mfa-Radio France in 1999) is available on the Harmonia Mundi label. Many of her compositions have been published by Editions Henry Lemoine in Paris.

Selected works: Empty Valley for Chinese flute, zheng and combination of gongs (1984), Han-shan Temple for soprano, qin, zhonghu and xiao (1985), Symphonietta for orchestra (1986), Poetical Spirit, concerto for erhu and Chinese orchestra (1983–88), Miroir/Poussi?re for solo viola and nine instruments (1992), Le Roi des arbres (King of trees), spoken opera in one act (3 scenes) for conductor, three actors, flute, two clarinets, two percussions, violin, cello and double bass, text: Franćois CervantŹs (1993), Huntun for five spatially placed instrumental groups (1994), Xiao-Yao-You for 12 instruments and 8-channel sound projection (1994–95), Gu Yin for flute and percussion (1995), Tian Yun, melodrama for narrator and eight instruments (1996), Le Plein du vide for 14 instruments and 8-channel sound projection (1996–97), Crue d’automne, stage poem for reciter, video, six musicians and 8-channel sound projection (1998), Da gui (in memory of Gérard Grisey) for flute, clarinet, percussion, violin and cello (1999), Dialogue d’amour for soprano, children’s choir and 13 instruments (2000), Variation on the Theme of Y.G.S.D., concertino for pipa and eight instruments (2002), Da Xu for zheng, flute, clarinet, percussion, violin and cello (2004), 1+1=3 for solo percussion and two percussion groups (2004), Tai for zheng and orchestra (2005).