Chang was born in
Lyon,
France, in March 1931, to
Chang Shuhong, a
Manchu painter, and Chen Zhixiu, her father's cousin and alma mater of
Beaux-Arts de Paris. The name "Shana" is a transliteration of the
Saône River in France's Lyon. In 1948, under the financial support of a Canadian woman teaching in China, she pursued advanced studies in the
United States, studying
drawing,
human anatomy,
art history,
painting, and
design at the Art School of the
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. She returned to China in December 1950 and taught at the Department of Construction,
Tsinghua University. In 1952, the
Chinese Communist Party (CCP) regrouped China's higher education institutions, she was transferred to the Department of Applied Art,
Central Academy of Fine Arts as an assistant. Three years later, the department was elevated to the Central Academy of Art and Design (now Academy of Arts & Design, Tsinghua University), becoming the top university for Chinese craft and design, and she successively worked as lecturer, associate professor, and professor. She joined the CCP in 1964. During the
Cultural Revolution, she suffered
political persecution due to her background of being born in France and studying in the United States. She was sent to the
May Seventh Cadre Schools to do farm works in the neighboring
Hebei province. She returned to
Beijing in late Cultural Revolution. After the
reform and opening up, she was promoted to vice president of the Central Academy of Art and Design in 1982. One year later she was promoted again to become its present and held the post for 15 years. She was a delegate to the
12th and
13th National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party. She was a deputy to the
7th,
8th and
9th National People's Congress. ==Personal life==