Film director Ang Lee (Li An) was born on October 23, 1954, in Taiwan.

After graduating from the National University of the Arts in 1975, he moved to the United States. He studied theater at Illinois State University and film production at New York University, and his short film "Fine Line" won Best Picture and Best Director at the NYU Student Film Festival. He then worked on screenplays and other projects, before founding the independent film production company Good Machine in 1991. His feature film debut was "Pushing Hands," a story about a stubborn Chinese man living with his son and daughter-in-law in America. In 1993, "The Wedding Banquet" won the Golden Bear at the Berlin International Film Festival and was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film.

He then won the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay for "Trick or Treat" in 1995, receiving seven other nominations. In 2000, he released "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon," based on a Chinese martial arts novel, which won four Academy Awards and made his name known worldwide. In 2003, he released "Hulk," a film adaptation of an American comic book, which became a huge hit, grossing over $100 million at the US box office. In 2005, he became the first Asian to win the Academy Award for Best Director for his cowboy love story, "Brokeback Mountain." In 2012, he won another Academy Award for Best Director for "Life of Pi."

In recognition of these efforts, the Chinese government awarded him the Second Class Order of the Star of Merit in 2006 and the First Class Order of the Star of Merit in 2013. He was also awarded the French Order of Arts and Letters in 2012.