Born in Shanghai, China. At age eighteen she won the Golden Rooster award for acting in China. At age twenty she moved to the United States where she she studied film at California State University.
Her first Hollywood movie was Tai-Pan, filmed on location in China. She went on to star in Bernardo Bertolucci's The Last Emperor in 1987 and the David Lynch television series Twin Peaks.
She directed Xiu Xiu: The Sent Down Girl in 1998 and Autumn in New York in 2000. She has also appeared in many other numerous movies both in Hollywood and China.