Born in 1972 in China, Yang Lina graduated from the Art Academy of the People’s Liberation Army in 1995. She began her career as a dancer and actress in ballets, theater, and films, including Jia Zhangke’s Platform. In 1997, she transitioned to independent documentary filmmaking. Her debut documentary, Old Men, an intimate portrait of aging neighbors, received international critical acclaim. She continued with deeply personal works such as Home Video, which explores her own family history, followed by Let’s Dance Together and The Love of Mr An, both centered on elderly romance in Beijing’s Temple of Heaven. Her later documentaries, My Neighbours and Their Japanese Ghosts and Wild Grass, examine collective memory and childhood over time.

Yang’s first fiction feature, Longing for the Rain, marked her shift to narrative cinema. Her second feature, Spring Tide, premiered in competition at the Shanghai International Film Festival in 2019. In 2024, her latest feature, Big World, was selected for the competition lineup of the Tokyo International Film Festival.