Xu Jinglei was born in 1974, and she graduated from the performance department of the Beijing Film Academy in 1997. She was turned down when she applied for admission to the make-up department of the Central Drama Institute. Unexpectedly, she met a director, at the
gate to the institute, who thought she was a student of the performance department. That is when she got the idea to become an actress. After some successful roles, she became a director. She compiled and directed the films /Father and/and Letter from a Strange
Woman, which were shown in 2003 and 2004, respectively. She played the lead role in each movie. She received the prize, for best maiden work by a director, at the 23rd Golden Rooster Awards for Chinese films. She also received the award for best work by a director at Spain's 52nd San Sebastian Film Festival.
At the mention of her performance in the film Letter from a Strange Woman, Xu said:"applied all the knowledge that I gathered when I directed the film. However, it was more difficult revealing the inner thoughts of the character, as I had to break through some of my
deeply rooted habits. I think my painstaking efforts were worthwhile."
