Born in Guizhou, she graduated in 1981 from the Guizhou Province School of Fine Arts and began teaching at the school the same year. Between 1984~1988 when studying at the China Central Academy she won for three straight years the Distinguished Artwork award at the "Student Portfolio Exhibition". In 1988 she gradated from the School of Printmaking at the Central Art Academy, and returned in 1993 to teach at the school ever since. Her 1979 print "Flight" was submitted to the "Guizhou Young Artists Exhibition" where it won the third rank ward. Her 1995 oil paintings "Earth in Heaven", "Stubborn Girl" and "Balancing Act" were entered in the 2nd "World of Female Artists" exhibition organized by the Beijing International Art Palace and published in books such as Painting Trend of Chinese Female Artist on the Turn of the Centuries, Culture and "The East". In 1997 she was dispatched to Paris in France on a fact-finding and study tour of art. In Paris she held the "Cite Internationale des Arts" while in 2006 at the Schoeni Gallery in Hong Kong she held "The Three of Us - Yu Chen, Chen Yu and Chen Li Siblings Joint Exhibition".