May-lu Jen, born in Taiwan, began learning Chinese folk arts as a child from her grandmother. In 1974 she emigrated from Taiwan to Chicago, Illinois. In 1981, after moving to Cherry Hill, NJ, she began introducing Chinese paper folding and Chinese knotting to the community by volunteering her time to do demonstrations, workshops, and exhibitions at libraries, nursing homes, multi-cultural events, and in the public schools.

When May-lu and her family moved to Baton Rouge, Louisiana in 1983, she became even more determined to share Chinese culture as a means of easing racial tensions. She influenced the community in which she lived in many positive ways and often appeared on television and was written about in newspapers promoting the Chinese culture. She moved back to Cherry Hill in 1985.

In the summer of 1987, she returned to her native Taiwan to study under master artists to augment her skills and to learn new art forms. Her dedication to Chinese folk arts won her many accolades. In 1989, for example, she was selected by the New Jersey State Council on the Arts (NJSCA) to appear as the featured folk artist in Arts in New Jersey. In 1994, May-lu received the Folk Arts Apprenticeship grant from the New Jersey State Council for the Arts, Folk Arts Program, funded in part with support from the National Endowment for the Arts. In the same year, she founded the South Jersey Chinese Cultural Association, which is committed to promoting Chinese culture to the community. The association empowers youths through learning and teaching Chinese paper folding, Chinese knotting, Chinese cultural dance and the Chinese yo-yo (similar to the juggler’s diabolo). Among her recent flurry of art exhibits and appearances, one worth special mention was the invitation from Kansas City Life & Old American Insurance Companies as a featured Chinese artisan. In the most recent activity in 1998, she and her apprentice Rachel Wu were both invited by the N.J. Camden County Cultural & Heritage Commission to exhibit their joint Chinese Knotting Craft under the program entitled “From Generations to Generations.”