Under a Chinese version of her name, she became a major star in China
during the late 1920s, making nine silent films there.
Billed as "the Chinese Mary Pickford" and projecting
an off-screen image of a "flapper," many young Chinese women adopted
her as a role model. Her studio's publicity was very vague about her
background, and her American origins did not become widely known until
after she left China.