Biography

December 31, 1965 · Shenyang, China

5′ 7″ (1.70 m)

For me the beauty of a person is a matter of the whole package. You have to look at the whole thing, not just a matter of outward appearance or whatever. It has to do with one's character, personality, upbringing and so on

The important thing for me when I look at characters is to consider the kind of constraints placed upon them. Now, me personally, I don't like to have a lot of constraints placed upon me. When you look at a script, of course, you look at a character and sometimes the character has to face situations that are very different from what you would like to face, or how you would like to react.

The important things are the script and the director. I have been waiting around to get the right script and the right director. For example, in the past if a Hollywood director came to me with a script and wanted me to play a character and she was a stereotypical Asian woman who gets into a fight and gets killed off quickly, that didn't seem to have much interest for me.

[on Memoirs of a Geisha (2005)] The most extraordinary thing about Rob Marshall is the way he works. For one thing: he is always encouraging, always supportive. Whatever we do, he says "Perfect", "Elegant", "Very Good", etc. Even if you're not the best actress in the world, he will keep supporting and encouraging, so that you will feel like "Oh my Gosh, I'm such a great actress, I can be a great actress!' And this really helped us a lot, because it really inspired us to give him our all. Every time we tried a scene, we would give him more and more. The other thing about Rob Marshall is his way of rehearsing. We rehearsed the whole film all the way through, from beginning to end, before we started shooting each scene. We had to memorize all the lines. They set up a simple set for us to practice and we ran our lines, adjusting some, so we knew what we were doing when we actually started filming it. We rehearsed the whole thing even before we split up the screenplay into shots, so we knew the whole script all the way through. This is something we just don't do in China. And it's very refreshing and different for me. And now I'm convinced this is a very good way to work.

[on the differences between acting in Chinese and Hollywood films] In terms of performance, it's not that different. Of course in terms of dialogue, there is a language difference, and this does make a difference. When I speak in English, my expressions become different. My attitude too. I'm not sure why, but there really is a difference. My hands move differently when I speak English. But in terms of performance, it's not that different. It won't be that because I'm in a foreign film that my approach is different. My training allowed me to make contact with a number of different possibilities. Four years in college let me work with excellent teachers who gave me a good foundation.