Pauline Chan arrived in Australia via Hong Kong and the United States. Sent to high school in Hong Kong when she was sixteen, she found herself exiled there at the conclusion of the Vietnam War. Chan enrolled in drama school and became an actress in Hong Kong cinema. After studying film at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) in the United States, she moved to Australia and enrolled in the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (AFTRA) in Sydney. Two of her works The Space Between the
Floor and the Door and Hang Up were shown at the Cannes Film Festival. Her first feature film, Traps, based on Kate Grenville's novel Dreamhouse was released in 1994.