Yeeshan Yang comes from a migratory family background. She spent her childhood years in Maoist China, where she saw her Indonesian-Chinese father politically persecuted as a spy; grew up in Hong Kong; studied Japanese in Tokyo; experienced migrant life again in Australia; then returned to Hong Kong. She has worked in journalism, filmmaking and publishing while conducting anthropological research.
Yeeshan penned the screenplay for the movie adaptation of Whispers and Moans, which opened in Hong Kong cinemas in May 2007, and True Women For Sale, a further adaptation of the book for which Prudence Liew won the Golden Horse Best Actress Award in December 2008.