Chan was born to Chinese Ethnic Indonesian parents. Chan's parents are Indonesian Chinese and her family moved to Hong Kong when she was three years old.[2][verification needed] She started show business in 1985 at the age of 14, winning a Sally Yeh impersonation contest hosted by TVB, within the show Enjoy Yourself Tonight (歡樂今宵). Thereafter she hosted many children's show and sang many children's songs which gained her much popularity within the younger generation. Chan stars in films as well as Hong Kong/Singaporean/mainland-Chinese television serials although she is most well known for many of her roles in the TVB series, especially Song Bird. She has also performed alongside Jacky Cheung in the musical Snow.Wolf.Lake, the Mandarin and Cantonese version.
In 1995, Chan changed her name from 陳松龄 to 陳松伶. The pronunciation was still the same – Ling – but a different character was used. The 'Ling' in her original name means "age" and the 'Ling' in her new name is part of a phrase that means "intelligent and witty". As her short hair grew longer, Chan went through yet another metamorphosis in 1999. She officially changed her English name from Nadia to Nnadia. The added "n" was a self reminder to "never give up." It also symbolized "new". In 2012, she again changed her English stage name to Adia,[3] removing the 2 initial "n's". A reason for the change has not been given publicly.
Chan is now settled in Beijing after marriage to Chinese actor Zhang Duo.[4][5][6][7]
