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If you read a lot of Chinese literature, there has always been very strong women figures - warriors, swordswomen - who defended honor and loyalty with the men. So, it's not new to our culture - it's always been very much a part of it. It's good that now the Western audience would have a different image of the Chinese women.

I think women of our generation went through Cultural Revolution, went through hardship, coming from nowhere, and suddenly see China's amazing opportunity. So women just seized the opportunity.

I want, through my roles, to express the parts in the hearts of Chinese women that they feel unable to let out.

The southern Chinese are a mixture of the Han, or northern Chinese, and the local tribes, some of which allowed women a great deal of freedom - much to the horror of the Chinese who were good Confucians. As a result, the folklore from southern China has strong females; and I found that the folktales mirrored my own experience.

Historically, there had been many periods of Chinese Renaissance.

Chinese women are much more modest than American women when it comes to clothes. We tend to show less flesh.

My grandmother, my mother and my aunts and their friends were all of southern Chinese ancestry, and they were all strong figures. Though if you asked them who was the head of their families, they would have said their husbands; and yet it was the women who ran everything.

I wanted to analyse and understand how the Chinese people could have their lives so crushed by fear.

I'm not Chinese. I thrive in interesting times.

Even though I'm very Westernized as an individual and very Canadian, I guess I've lost some of my Chinese culture.