Associate Professor Tan Chee Lay has lived in Singapore, Taiwan and the UK. He has received a BA (Chinese and Education, National Taiwan Normal University, under a Public Service Commission overseas scholarship), MA(English Studies, National University of Singapore), MBA (Leicester University) and PhD (Oriental Studies, Cambridge University, under an NIE Postgraduate scholarship). He was awarded the coveted Young Artist Award by the National Arts Council in 2004 and the Singapore Youth Award (Culture and the Arts), the highest accolade for youth, in 2006. A former tutor of the Chinese Language Elective Programme in Hwa Chong Junior College, and Executive Director (R&D) of Singapore Centre for Chinese Language, he was the Deputy Head of Asian Languages and Cultures Academic Group, helping to oversee the Chinese, Malay and Tamil Divisions. Currently, he is Associate Dean (Graduate Education by Coursework), Graduate Studies & Professional Learning, NIE, NTU.

A former adjunct faculty of Hong Kong University and UniSIM, Chee Lay was a Lee Kong Chien Research Fellow and George Lyndon Hicks Fellow at National Library. He has won research awards and best research papers in China and Taiwan, on top of Excellence in Teaching awards, Most Inspiring Chinese Teacher Award, Innergy Award for innovative pedagogy from SCCL, SPH and MOE, respectively. An invited keynote speaker in Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, China, Taiwan and Hong Kong, he has received research grants from MOE ERC, NIE ERFP, NTU, NAC, NHB, and Lee Kuan Yew Fund for Bilingualism (LKYFB). Currently, he is a board member of Lee Kuan Yew Fund for Bilingualism and Singapore Book Council, the Trustee of Singapore Chinese Teachers Union, and a honorary exco member of China’s Modern Linguistic and Pedagogical Research Professional Committee. He is also the deputy chief editor of the Journal of Chinese Language Education (CSSCI Journal) and a board member or reviewer of numerous international journals. He have also sat on the steering boards and advisory panels of MOE, NHB, NAC, The Art House, Singapore Press Holdings, and Singapore Book Council.

Chee Lay enjoys researching Nanyang literati and artists, and runs a FB page, VeryNanyang, to share and promote Nanyang cultures. A founding member of the multilingual Poetry Festival Singapore and the former Singapore Student Bilingual Literary Award, he had been the judge for Cultural Medallion, Golden Point Award, Singapore Book Prize, and SEA Write Award. A prolific writer of various genres, he has published almost 30 books of academic writing, poetry, children’s picture books, short stories, and prose, the latest being Poems from the Eternal Summer (Taiwan's Times Publishing), which won the Singapore Literature Prize in 2024.