On her ninetieth birthday, Dr. Chao told the "China Post" (The English Newspaper of Taiwan) that the secret to happiness is to "forget oneself in helping other". By that measure, she should be a very happy person indeed.

An American-born Chinese, Dr. Chao’s mother was a German physician and her father a Chinese lawyer, both of whom were educated in the U.S.  She arrived in China for the first time at the age of 4. Later, she studied music at the Leipzig Academy in Germany, but was forced to return to China at the outbreak of the First World War. She stayed with the Peking Normal School during its evolution into the National Normal University,  then moved to American-administrated Yenching University during the Japanese Occupation.

After December of 1941, Yenching was closed and Dr. Lillian Chao tried to flee south, but was caught and imprisoned. After her release, she lived on staples bartered for private English lessons. After the war, she began teaching on the Peiping Radio Broadcasting Station and soon was urged to go to the even bigger station at Nanking. She arrived a few days before the Communists moved in, and escaped to Shanghai, where luckily she met the young man who used to listen to her Peking program who helped her to come to Taiwan in January 1948.

In Taiwan, she found many old friends and soon resumed her teaching at Taiwan Provincial Normal Collage and later at National Taiwan University, where she stayed until age sixty-five.

In 1951, she also began teaching English over CBS (Central Broadcasting System, Radio Taiwan) and published the Students’ English Digest as her teaching material. She is still remembered as affectionately called "Mother Goose". Some years ago she was asked to present a television program on CTS (Central Taiwan Station), but her right leg was swollen by illness to twice its normal size. To cover it, she used the long, wide skirt of Mother Goose, and both she and the Mother Goose Program got the name.

To encourage her students, she awarded prizes for the best compositions on its monthly themes. Her program stayed on the air until October, 1984.

To give recognition for Lillian’s sixty plus years of service, Dr. Lillian Chao Educational Fund was establish in 1983 with NT$ 500,000 founded by TIWC and donation of NT$100,000 from Dr. Chao. Interest derived from this Fund has been used since 1984 for an annual speech contest to honor her efforts.

An active TIWC Charter Member until her death in 1989, Dr. Lillian Chao dedicated her life to helping Chinese students in the proper usage of the English language.

Each year students from five or six universities/colleges are invited to compete. Each participant submits a written 5-minute speech on predominant topics. Judges select the best two from each school, and it is those students who then present their speeches orally. The top three are then required to give a 2-minute impromptu speech, so it is on the basis of both speeches that the final placement of winners is made.

The First Annual Dr. Lilian Chao English Speech Contest was held in 1984.

The Seventh Annual English Speech Contest was held in 1990.