Chan was born in the U.S. to Chinese immigrants and graduated from
Harry Ells High School intending to pursue medicine. As an undergraduate at the
University of California, Berkeley, he studied literature instead and in 1973, completed his master's degree in creative writing at the San Francisco State University. He co-founded its Asian American studies department and twice served as first chair of the department. With fellow authors
Frank Chin,
Lawson Fusao Inada, and
Shawn Wong, Chan edited two editions of the groundbreaking anthology of Asian American literature,
Aiiieeeee! An Anthology of Asian-American Writers, which helped introduce Asian American authors as worthy of serious study. This quartet had formed the Combined Asian Resources Project (CARP) to accomplish this task, which helped reintroduce and posthumously republish older works by Asian American authors, such as
John Okada's
No-No Boy and
Louis Chu's
Eat a Bowl of Tea, for which Chan penned a forward (foreword). Chan also coined the term
racist love (with Chin) to express the ways Asians are stereotyped in overly-positive ways that are just as damaging as the negative stereotypes used against blacks, Latinos and Native Americans. His brother is
Michael Paul Chan, an actor, and a founding member of the
Asian American Theater Company, where Frank Chin was a leading figure, and where Jeffery Paul served on the Board of Directors for the company. Chan also wrote a comedic play, "Bunnyhop", which was produced by
East West Players during their 1977–1978 season. After a battle with cancer, Chan died on January 11, 2022, at the age of 79. == Bibliography ==