Chang was born as Emily Hsiu-Ching Chang in Kailua, Honolulu County, Hawaii. Chang's mother is Sandra Galeone Chang. Chang's father was Laban Lee Bun Chang (died 2003), a lawyer and originally from Kaohsiung, Taiwan. Chang has a sister Sara.[1][4] Chang grew up in Kailua, Hawaii and graduated from the Punahou School in 1998.[5][6]
Prior to joining CNN in 2007, Chang served as a reporter at KNSD, NBC's affiliate in San Diego, California. There, she filed reports for MSNBC and won five regional Emmy Awards. She started her career as a news producer at NBC in New York.
From 2007 to 2010, Chang served as an international correspondent for CNN, based in Beijing and London.[8]
In Beijing, she reported on a wide range of stories, including the 2008 Beijing Olympics, China's economic transformation and its environmental consequences, the 2008 South China floods, the aftermath of the 2008 Sichuan earthquake, North Korea's nuclear ambitions and President Obama's historic visit to Asia. During Obama's visit to Shanghai, Chang was briefly detained by the police for her coverage of the banned Oba-mao T-shirt, which depicted the American President dressed in iconic Red Army attire.
In 2010, Chang joined Bloomberg Television. On February 28, 2011, Chang became the anchor of Bloomberg West as the only network or cable TV show to be based in San Francisco, California.[9] The daily show features original reporting and interviews with tech newsmakers including venture capitalists, CEOs, start-up entrepreneurs, and analysts. In October 2016, the show was renamed Bloomberg Technology. Chang has interviewed top tech executives, investors and entrepreneurs, including Apple CEO Tim Cook, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg, former Google Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt, Twitter Co-Founder Jack Dorsey, Disney CEO Bob Iger, former Yahoo! CEO Marissa Mayer, and Alibaba Founder and Executive Chairman Jack Ma. Chang left Bloomberg Technology on November 10, 2022, after 12 years anchoring the show. [10][11]
Chang is the author of Brotopia: Breaking Up the Boys' Club of Silicon Valley, published in February 2018 by Portfolio Books, a division of Penguin Random House.[12][13] The book investigates alleged sexism and gender inequality in Silicon Valley. It was an instant national bestseller and received significant media attention and critical acclaim.
Vanity Fair magazine ran an excerpt from the book in their January 2018 issue titled "Oh My God, This Is So F---ed Up": Inside Silicon Valley's Secretive, Orgiastic Dark Side." Bloomberg Businessweek ran an excerpt titled "Women Once Ruled the Computer World; When Did Silicon Valley Become Brotopia?"
The PBS "Newshour"-New York Times book club selected Brotopia as their April 2019 book club read.
HBO's Silicon Valley
Chang appeared as herself in the HBO show Silicon Valley, in which she interviewed various characters. She appeared in six episodes across three seasons.[14]