Ang Lee the quintessential Chinese scholar artist

Ang Lee's second Academy Award win, in the Best Director category, has cemented his stature as the most celebrated of Chinese-speaking filmmakers.

This is not only a testament of Oscar's reach and penetration, but also an emblem of the Taiwan-born director's uncanny brilliance in transcending cultures and languages.

Life of Pi, for which he won Sunday's award (Monday, Beijing Time), has nothing to do with China in either story location or plotlines, but Chinese audiences have embraced it with an open heart because we sensed an infusion of Chinese characteristics in the story-telling and the themes.