The perfect blend

Alina Y.Qiu (left) has worked with many Hollywood stars, including Lucy Liu.

Silver Bear winner not afraid of risks

A global stage

After Kill Bill, she went on working on the set for a couple more international productions and at the same time co-translated a travel book. She finally got away for the much delayed trip to Yunnan province in Southwest China and Thailand.

During the trip, the Peking University English language and literature major decided to study for a business management degree with special focus on the entertainment industry.

She received offers from the University of Southern California and the University of Cambridge. She chose the latter without hesitation. "Studying is not just about the major. To be a Cambridge grad is a lifetime honor," she says.

She believed her bilingual skills with a degree in business management would help her do more than just coordinating on a film set.

After working in London for a short while, she joined a venture capital firm in Beijing to explore the entertainment industry from the investment perspective. In the meantime, she worked with Hollywood consultants to develop and produce films with local content.

Qiu went on to work on a more mixed project, Inseparable. It was a dramatic comedy directed by China-born, US-educated Dayyan Eng, starring two-time Oscar-winner Kevin Spacey and Hong Kong-based actor Daniel Wu.

After locking down Spacey, the producers had just a few months to raise funds. She worked with the team around the clock to make it happen.

"The fundraising was challenging," Qiu says. "The Chinese investors were conservative. A bankable cast meant more to them than how many awards your cast has accumulated."

Spacey is now a household name in China, thanks to House of Cards, which boasts tens of millions of clicks on China's video-streaming websites. But back in 2010 he did not have the overwhelming star power among the Chinese audience.

Spacey often walked around town in Guangzhou without being recognized. And yet Peter Stormare, a cameo in the film who played a villain in Prison Break, the most popular US TV show in China at that time, was often approached for autographs on Guangzhou's streets.

"Maybe we were a bit ahead of time," Qiu says, laughing. "If we released Inseparable this year, it would be much easier to promote it."