Meet Chloe Zhao, First Asian Woman To Win Best Director Award At Golden Globes

Chloe Zhao: Chinese filmmaker Chloé Zhao has made waves for winning the Golden Globe award of Best Director for her latest film Nomadland. 

She has become the first Asian woman to achieve this feat and was also praised by her home country, China. However, the tide turned against her as the Chinese started erasing references and promotional material related to her film. They did this after they came across a 2013 interview in which Zhao called China "a place where there are lies everywhere."

The backlash only fuelled after they came across an interview with an Australian website in which Zhao said “The U.S. is now my country, ultimately.” However, the website said that they had misquoted and she had actually said that the U. S. was 'not my country.'

The hashtags “#Nomadland” and “#NomadlandReleaseDate” have now disappeared from the Chinese social media platform Weibo. It is likely that the film might not be released in China.

Here are a few things you ought to know about Chloé Zhao.

1. Chloé Zhao or Zhao Ting is a Chinese filmmaker, director, producer and screenwriter who was born in Beijing on March 31, 1982.
2. Zhao was quite rebellious as a child, and was greatly influenced by Western pop culture. She moved to London for her schooling, and completed high school in Los Angeles.
3. She eventually graduated in political science and started doing various odd jobs before studying film production at New York University Tisch School of the Arts.
4. In 2010, Chloé Zhao's short film Daughters was premiered at the Clermont-Ferrand International Short Film Festival. It bagged the Best Student Live Action Short at the 2010 Palm Springs International ShortFest and Special Jury Prize at the 2010 Cinequest Film Festival.
5. She went on to direct her first feature film Songs My Brothers Taught Me. The film won a Best Feature Film nomination at the 31st Independent Spirit Awards.
6. Zhao then directed the film The Rider in 2017. It was released in 2018 and won a lot of praise. The film was about a young cowboy who is on a quest to discover himself after a deathly accident makes him quit his riding career.
7. The filmmaker will be releasing her big Marvel project called Eternals in November 2021. It is based on the comic-book series which bears the same name.