Ching Tien is a Chinese Canadian social impact leader and internationally celebrated advocate for gender equality and women’s empowerment. Born in Beijing, Tien attended a prestigious girls’ school alongside the daughters of Mao Zedong and Deng Xiaoping, until her studies were disrupted by the Cultural Revolution. Sent to remote Gansu Province, she spent eight years working in a factory, witnessing firsthand the poverty and discrimination faced by rural women and girls. This experience would inspire her lifelong commitment to advancing education for women from underprivileged backgrounds.
In 1983, Tien immigrated to Vancouver, Canada where she raised two children as a single mother. Despite arriving with limited English and few resources, she built a successful career as the owner of an art gallery and active contributor to the city’s arts community. Motivated by the opportunities her children had access to in Canada, she founded Educating Girls of Rural China (EGRC) in 2005, guided by the belief that “educated women have educated children”.
Over 18 years, EGRC provided access to education and support for more than 2,000 young women from rural China, helping them to complete high school and university and achieving a graduation rate of over 99%. Every graduate from the program went on to secure employment and lift their families out of poverty, with many giving back to EGRC as donors and volunteers. Building on EGRC’s success, Tien founded the Ching Tien Foundation for Women in 2023 to extend this mission beyond China and advance gender equality across Asia.
Ching is a sought-after thought leader who has been invited to speak at numerous events including: EVE Program Phuket (2023) and Singapore (2019); Alibaba’s Global Women Entrepreneurship Conference (2017); TEDxBeijing (2016); and the Asia Society Hong Kong (2015). Her achievements in advancing equality and women’s education have been recognized with numerous awards including: the Canadian Governor General’s Meritorious Service Decoration, Civil Division (2025); the Canada China Business Council’s 5 and 50 Award (2020); the RBC Women of Influence Award Finalize (2018); and the Canadian Governor General’s Visit Medallion (2017).