Ann Hu

The life of writer-director-producer Ann Hu could easily be the subject of a feature film. Born and raised in China to parents who were academics, she found her life uprooted in the mid-1960s when Mao Tse-tung instituted what has come to be known as "The Cultural Revolution." Separated from her parents (who were sent to labor camps), Hu spent some ten years working at a dingy restaurant just outside Beijing barely earning enough to support herself and her younger brother. When the government relaxed some of its constrictions, she taught herself English and began earning extra money as a translator. In 1979, she passed China's first college entrance exams and was allowed to travel to the USA to attend NYU. Earning a business degree in 1985, she began a career as a successful commodities trader, working first for an Australian conglomerate and then forming an investment company with her husband. Still, something was lacking in her life, despite the trappings of wealth.