Shi was born in 1989 in Chongqing, China as an only child before immigrating to Canada at the age of two with her parents.[4] She spent half a year in Newfoundland before moving to Toronto, where she grew up learning about art from her father.[5] She was influenced by her father, who had been a college professor of fine arts and a landscape painter in China.[5][6] About her mother, Shi says that "She's not a super outwardly emotional person," but Shi took a lot of inspiration and guidance from her mom when directing Bao.[7] Shi recalls that "My Chinese mom was always making sure I never wandered away too far, that I was safe." She also states that her favorite dumplings are "the boiled pork and chives dumplings that my mom would make for me growing up."[6] During her childhood, Shi watched many Studio Ghibli and Disney films, which exposed her to Asian cinema and animation.[8][9]
As a high school student, Shi binge-watched anime, read manga, and became the Vice President of her school's anime club.[5] She joined online art communities and uploaded her fan artwork to DeviantArt.[10] This became her first exposure to an environment of like-minded people that helped her establish a network with other artists. "I could follow artists, and I could email them. In the past, you'd have to be in California or know a guy who was friends with this other guy that worked at Disney or something," said Shi.[11] Thus Shi was inspired to enroll at Sheridan College for her post-secondary education.[10]
At Sheridan, Shi studied animation, graduating in 2011.[12] During her second year attending school, she enrolled in a course taught by Nancy Beiman, whose class she credits for her pursuit of storyboarding. Shi created a short film for an assignment during her last year at Sheridan. In 2009, she undertook an internship with Chuck Gammage Animation as a clean-up artist, inbetweener, storyboard artist, and animator.[13]