In 2007, the film Lust, Caution by Taiwanese director Ang Lee won the Golden Lion Award at the Venice Film Festival. Regarded highly by critics, the film was based on a short story by the Chinese writer Eileen Chang, who despite being one of modern China's most celebrated literary figures, was at the time relatively unknown in the West.

Born in 1920 to an important family in Shanghai, Chang had a difficult early life that influenced much of her writing. Born into a wealthy family, Chang was bullied terribly by her drug-using father, who even locked her in a room for nearly half a year when she became sick. In 1939, she went to study at the University of Hong Kong and began to gain success as a writer. The Japanese attack on the city in 1941, however, forced her to return to Shanghai, where she married and later divorced after discovering her husband was having a love affair with a young nurse. In 1952, due to the difficult political situation in China, she fled once again to Hong Kong and three years later moved to the United States, where she lived until her death in 1995. During her life, she published over 60 novels, short stories, and movie scripts, mostly in her native Chinese.

Unlike many Chinese writers of the time whose works were heavily influenced by politics, Chang's work focused more on the intense emotional experiences of her characters. These were often ordinary women dealing with family quarrels, hateful parents, and cheating husbands. Her elegant writing showed an understanding of human psychology that no other Chinese writer of the period could match.

Following the success of Ang Lee's film, many of Chang's works were translated into English for the first time. A whole new generation of readers were introduced to Chang's amazing stories and her work finally gained the global fame that it deserved.

2007年，台灣導演李安執導的電影《色，戒》榮獲威尼斯影展的金獅獎。影評大力讚賞的此部電影，其實改編自中國作家張愛玲的短篇故事。儘管張愛玲已是中國現代最知名的文學名人，但當時在西方還是相對沒沒無名。

生於1920年上海的顯赫家庭，張愛玲早年艱難的人生，對她的文風影響甚深。雖然出身富裕家境，張愛玲卻受到有毒癮的父親極盡虐待。父親甚至在她生病時，將她鎖在房間近半年的時間。1939年，她就讀香港大學，開始透過作家身分獲得成就。不過，日本人於1941年攻擊香港，迫使她返回上海並結婚，但發現丈夫與年輕護士外遇後即離婚。1952年，由於中國面臨政治困境，她再度飛遁至香港，並於三年後定居美國到1995年過世為止。她一生中出版超過60部小說、短篇故事和電影劇本，多數以中文母語撰寫。

與當時作品深受政治影響的許多華人作家不同，張愛玲的著作更著重於筆下人物的強烈情緒經歷。這些角色包括處理家庭爭吵的一般婦女、可恨的父母以及外遇的丈夫。她優雅的字裡行間，對人性的了解表露無遺，當時沒有一個華人作家足以並駕齊驅。

李安的電影大獲好評之後，張愛玲的許多著作均首度翻譯為英文版─讓全新一代的讀者接觸到張愛玲令人驚豔的故事，而她的著作終於擁有應得的全球名聲。