HOUSTON, April 11 (Xinhua) -- The future of Chinese film industry is promising, Lisa Lu, a Chinese-born American actress, said Thursday during the 52nd WorldFest-Houston Annual International Independent Film Festival.
Lu, who won the Golden Horse Awards three times in the 1970s, said the presence of Chinese elements in Hollywood has been increasing these years.
"When you watch this year's Oscar best picture winner Green Book, you can find the Chinese investor's name. The feeling is great. Actually, I'm quite happy these days, because I have found that all Hollywood blockbusters I've seen recently comes with the Chinese investor's name," she said.
Green Book, a period drama about race relations in the American South, has resonated strongly in China. The film made its debut in China just three days after winning the 91st Academy Awards, far sooner than any past Oscar best picture winner. Its connections to China played a huge role.
Alibaba Pictures, the film studio arm of Chinese tech tycoon Jack Ma's e-commerce giant Alibaba, participated in Green Book as an investor alongside Participant Media, DreamWorks Pictures and Stephen Spielberg's Amblin Partners.
Lu suggested that Chinese investors should help arrange young Chinese talents to work in Hollywood. "When they go back to China, they can help produce world class films," she said.
Lu was born in Beijing, China in 1927. she was active in Chinese opera, or Kunqu, before immigrating to the United States.
In the 1950s, she enjoyed a long career in television in the United States. Her film career took off in the 1970s and received three Best Actress Golden Horse Awards for her Chinese-language films.
She may be best known by English-speaking audiences for her roles in the 1988 TV miniseries Noble House and the films The Last Emperor (1987), The Joy Luck Club (1993), and Crazy Rich Asians (2018).
This year, the competitive WorldFest-Houston international film festival opened on Friday and will run through April 14.
During the period, 10 major categories of competition, including over 60 new independent feature films and 108 award-winning shorts as well as documentaries and student projects from around the world, will be screened.
