Jade Snow Wong was born in San Francisco and brought up in a family that maintained traditional Chinese customs. Due to the high importance her family placed on education and her own desire to learn, Wong graduated from Mills College in 1942 with a hard-earned Phi Beta Kappa key. She worked as a secretary during World War II, and discovered a talent for ceramics. When she began to sell her work in a shop in Chinatown, it quickly found popularity. Wong's pottery was later displayed in art museums across the United States. In 1950, Wong published the first of her two autobiographical volumes, Fifth Chinese Daughter. Her second volume, No Chinese Stranger, was published in 1975. Towards the end of her life, Wong ran a travel service in San Francisco, and died there in 2006.