I'm a Canadian citizen but I was born in China. I went to Canada as a resident about 14 or 15 years ago. I spent a few years in Victoria, B.C. and I met my producer from England and we started doing music. After we did demo tapes then we were looking for investors to do some music. We were very fortunate and found a label from Boston, Massachusetts so this is the label I'm signed with. We spent about four or five years to finish the project. It's a long project and a long time because I was born in China and I never had any experience singing in English. When I was in China my career was as a film actress. I went to Beijing Film Academy and professionally trained as a movie actress. I come from a movie family. My parents were in the movie industry all their lives and they were actors and actresses on the stage as well. I didn't really have any experience singing in English. The reason that I wanted to do this because when I came to North America, I loved Western pop music so I started listening to a lot of great singers. I just realized there are so many crossover artists from Latin communities and Black communities and French like Celine Dion. There is not one single Asian crossover singer that can represent that culture in North America but there is a huge Asian population in North America. I thought if I can be the first to cross over as an Asian pop singer in North America, that probably will give a lot of courage to a lot of the Asian young kids who are born in North America who want to go down that road. Because I come from China I have the background so I can be a little bit unique compared to the local born artists. I talked to my producer about my idea and he's from England so he said that's a great idea and let's do it. Let's do something that nobody has ever done before so that's why I started doing this. However it was very difficult for anybody to accept the idea in the beginning because there is no role model. They didn't know what to do with me. Every step I had to do it myself. People liked the idea but they didn't know how to do it. I was signed with EMI Canada with my first album. They really liked the idea but they just didn't know how to promote me anyway. I thought that the U.S. is probably the market that can promote me. Of course everybody knows that if you want to do music you have to come to the States. Therefore we made the decision that we're going to promote the album in the States. That was two years ago and we finished the second album which is the one we just released in the States. The style is very different from the first one. This is techno rock with hip-hop and it's very unique. It's a sweet and sour type of contrast and I really, really put my heart into that album. It took us a long time to try to figure out the new style and how we can make this album sound great. When I finished the album I came to Los Angeles to finish my photo shoot for the album cover. Everything was set up for me to come to Los Angeles for promotion to try to get a major distributor to distribute the album and when I crossed the border at the end of August, that was when the problem happened. The short-sighted officer thought I was coming to Los Angeles to work. I told him I never worked in the States ever. I was coming to the U.S. to use the talent and we're actually bringing the money into the U.S. from Canada. For some reason he was very single-minded and didn't want to listen so we had a disagreement. I told him I was not going to Los Angeles to work and I've never worked in the States and he said yes I did. We got into an argument that he took personally so he banned me for five years. Since that of course my career was put into very bad jeopardy and I couldn't do anything. Everything was put on hold for almost two years. Recently a lawyer from Seattle which has been working on my case, he's the best immigration lawyer and his name is Bob Paul and he's been working on this case for almost two years, he hired his associate in Vancouver whose name is David Anderson and he's another immigration lawyer but he's Canadian. They're both working on this project because there is no way the promoters in L.A. can do any more work without me being in L.A. to travel on a promotional tour to visit all these radio stations. It's very important for people to see me personally so they put a lot of pressure on the two lawyers so they made a decision that they're going to apply for parole for me so they can let me in. Of course it's been two years that we've been working on this case and the lawyers really tried hard to work on this case. July the 10th we decided to apply for the parole at the border on July the 14th to see if they would let me in. We did a lot of preparation and then the lawyers got all this paperwork for me. I was very fortunate that the immigration officer, the port director, was very supportive so he basically okayed the parole. They let me in for five weeks but I have to go back to Canada not later than August the 20th. It's very kind of the immigration officer, the port director, from Peace Arch at the Bellingham border to give me that amount of time. It's very kind of them to realize that I need help so I'm very thankful for that.

In this country we have several problems with people basically wanting to be what I call little Napoleans and basically doing whatever the hell they want to do. It's interesting how the terrorist attacks in 2001 have basically propelled this attitude of little Napoleans and have given an impetus to screw with people. That's part of the problem you've run into. You just ran into this one guy who thinks he has the right to do whatever the hell he wants to and it doesn't bother him if he makes us look bad in the process.

Yeah, that was the problem. I asked for the supervisor. I was told before that the supervisors on the border are very nice. They're very, very kind and this shortsighted officer probably had a really bad day that day. He didn't want me to speak to the supervisor. Basically he made that decision on his own to ban two musicians right on the spot for five years without any supervision which was not right. My producer was with me and he got banned because the officer accused him of trying to smuggle aliens into the country because he was driving my car. I knew it wasn't right and I beckoned him and asked if I could speak to his supervisor. He told me I couldn't speak to his supervisor.

He was wrong.

Oh yeah, he was wrong for sure. That was not the immigration law either. I know the authority of immigration never allowed him to do that but he did it anyway. That was the problem. Funny enough before we applied for the parole, I went to a conference in Vancouver called Border Crossing. The lawyer which was my lawyer, David Anderson, invited all the immigration authorities from all the borders and the Vancouver airport to the conference. All these officers are from a high level of U.S. immigration and they explained to all of us who had a problem with the border officers that some of the rules are very black and white and if you don't like how you were treated by the officers then you should ask for a supervisor. That's the law. Also if the officer doesn't like what you present you can always withdraw your application to enter the States and they can't refuse you or ban you. I asked the officer if I can withdraw all my applications to enter the States at this time. I can go back to Canada and I can come back with the proper papers. He didn't want me to do that and he said no, I was banned. For some reason he had a bad day and he just wanted to basically ruin my career. I was held for seven hours in his office. I knew it wasn't right but I couldn't get a hold of his supervisor.

Was he trying to insinuate that you were a prostitute of some sort? The impression I got was that he was trying to insinuate that you were a prostitute which is pretty damn insulting.

He didn't say I was a prostitute. He said that girls like me try to cross the border and told all the officers at the border that I was going there for pleasure. That they end up in Vegas and become prostitutes.

That's pretty damn insulting.

Yeah, he didn't say I was trying to do that. He said girls like me.

That's the problem. He doesn't come right out and say it. It's not what he actually says, it's what he insinuates. To me that's pretty damn insulting and he should be called on the carpet for that alone.

Yeah, his attitude was quite harsh. I told him that he had to understand that I've spent seven years working on this project. This isn't just about me or the people who have spent that many years involved in my project all get affected if he does this. They searched my car inside and out and they couldn't even find one piece of fresh fruit. I don't drink and I don't smoke and I don't take any drugs whatsoever. I never have. I'm so clean and he just couldn't find any evidence in my car. He searched my car for an hour. Three guys searched it inside and out to try to find some evidence but they couldn't because I have a very clean life. I told him I wasn't breaking his laws, it was just a misunderstanding. He's accusing me of going down to Los Angeles to work but I told him I'm not working. I told him if he didn't believe me then I will withdraw all my applications and go back to Canada and I will come back with the papers of proof that he wants me to show him. He didn't want me to go so basically he stuck me right there for seven hours and he wanted me to sign a paper that I got banned for five years. I refused in the beginning and said I wasn't going to sign anything unless I see a lawyer. He told me I had no right of appeal and he said if I didn't sign the paper he would confiscate my car and throw me in jail. Of course I was scared at that moment. He told me he was going to handcuff me and throw me in jail and that they had a jail upstairs. He told me I would stay there if I wasn't going to sign it and he's going to confiscate my car too. I decided I better sign it because I didn't want to get into any trouble because I know I'm not guilty. I'm innocent but I don't want to stay in jail for nothing. I talked to my lawyer later and my lawyer said he was just threatening me and he had no right to do so.

Yeah, he coerced you.

Exactly, which was not right so it was a very harsh two year experience for me. It put my career in really bad jeopardy.

Yeah, it never ceases to amaze me how they claim to put all these guidelines in place to keep terrorists out of the country but every time you turn around they're harassing innocent people. It makes me wonder.

Yeah, now actually I'm very thankful for the immigration authority because I'm dealing with the authorities directly now through my lawyer. When my lawyer talked to the port director from Peace Arch, he was very understanding and he's very supportive. When you're really dealing with the authority, I don't think there will be any problems. It's just when you deal with the bottom people and I'm not saying their jobs are the bottom, but the person who doesn't have the authority and wants to be on a power trip, that is the problem. Whenever I talk to supervisors or talk to the directors, they're all very nice.

You were just dealing with someone who had a Napolean complex and thought he was going to be a badass. Hopefully he no longer has a job because people like that don't need to be working in our border patrol.

I think they should really be trained properly I guess.

They should be. You've been talking about this project you've been working on for two years and you called it Banned In America based on your experiences. Tell me a little about your record.

After I got banned of course I didn't have a title for my album so I thought I'd name my album Banned In America not that I wanted to do anything against the authority of the United States but I wanted to show the effect. Because of this record I got banned for five years and I couldn't even go back to the States. I love the U.S. I'm a big fan of American life as a Chinese born Canadian. I just love Americans so that really broke my heart that I couldn't go back. The reason I named my album Banned In America was because I wanted to show the fact that because of this record I couldn't go back to the U.S. Of course after we worked on this record with all the art design work and working with people in L.A., we decided to still release the album. I was thinking even if I can't come across the border to the U.S. and meet the U.S. audience, at least I want them to know about my album I'm working on and they can't stop me from doing that. That's what I've been doing. I felt if I couldn't come here physically to introduce my music to the U.S. audience at least I can send them my voice. The border can't stop me from doing that. I've been working on that so the album release is November. We have a very strong team and we have promoters and we have radio promoters. We have Luck Media PR firm that has really worked on this project. Especially now in the U.S. so they're trying to utilize all the time I'm here to do some PR work for me.

That's great. You said this album is different from your previous release. Is this album a little more heavier on the rock side of things?

Yeah, my first album was my first English album so at that time as a new artist and basically just doing whatever the label wanted me to do and the producer wanted me to do, I learned so much from my first album so on the second album I always wanted to do something that was with my passion of music. My passion with music is rock and roll but I like hip-hop as well. The reason I like rock and roll is I like the passion of rock and roll. The reason I like hip-hop is because I like the groove. I thought to put those two things together, you have the passion and the groove. That would be brilliant. I tried to talk to my producers to see if we can work things out by putting sweet and sour together to make that very distinguished contrast so my producers were very supportive so we tried all the new things. We came up with the second album that I call techno rock with hip-hop influences. It's a very unique sound.

I can imagine it is. I would love to hear this. When will the album be released?

It has been released since the June the 15th already but we haven't done too much live touring at this moment. I'm just doing a promo tour because my lawyer is applying for the working visa for the future to see if we can do a live tour.

That would be absolutely awesome and I hope all of that works out for you.

Thank you so much. There is a track I can briefly tell you the background about. I come from a Chinese background and I know there are so many Chinese and even Asian people who live in North America so I picked this Chinese violin piece that's called "Butterfly". In Chinese it's not called "Butterfly" but I just used the main storyline and renamed the track as "Butterfly". We rewrote everything but we used the main melody from that Chinese violin piece. It's very beautiful and the reason I tried to do this is because I wanted all the Chinese and Asian people to know that I'm doing something for them as well and I just want to carry that heritage and the culture. That's why I picked that track and called it "Butterfly". Actually I got a lot of great responses from White American people. They love that kind of oriental sound. Oriental background and melodies. It's very different. There is another track we're working to release as a third single and it's called "Three Blind Mice". I used little pieces from Beijing opera. It sounds very different and I sang in Mandarin from a very famous show in China during the cultural revolution and it's called Beijing opera. A lot of Chinese people would know it. The reason I'm singing it is I always like to carry the heritage and want to introduce some Eastern or my culture in the music area slowly in North America.

You folks have an extremely rich culture.

Yeah, I appreciate my culture more now when I live in North America.

Yeah, you always do believe me.

I know. I am surprised that so many White North American people love that kind of sound. It's very, very encouraging.

A lot of people are open to different things. The world can't survive with everybody being isolated from each other. People need to embrace each other and need to interact more. I think if we were more in the habit of pushing our politicians aside and interacting on a more basic level things would be a lot better.

That's right.

That's what music is there for. Music is the ultimate diplomat.

That's right. The whole charm about North America is the multicultural countries. Canada and the U.S. I think especially for Asian communities they need some kind of role models. Especially for the newer generations. They need something that can really present their culture just like the Latin singers like Shakira and the original singer Gloria Estafan. She was the first to cross over from Latin but of course now there's so many of them like Shakira is actually from Colombia. She was not even born here and she has a similar background where I am now because I was actually born in China. Basically I didn't speak any English when I first came so I would like to be the first crossover pop and rock singer. That's my whole meaning for this project.

I think you're doing a damn good job.

Thank you so much.

Keep up the good work. Are you working on any kind of videos?

We have two videos. We haven't shot another video because the border thing really put everything on hold and we didn't know what the situation was. We didn't know how it would go so for me to be here is a very sudden decision. Nobody knew if it was going to work or not until that moment and when the supervisor told my lawyer and myself that I can go now and we thought it was great that we made it. Everything happened so quickly so we haven't really made any decisions if we're going to do another video shoot or not yet. Eventually of course we will. It's hard for me now to be able to come to the States to work with artists down here. I did two videos and I always come to L.A. to practice with dancers and to practice with photographers and my makeup artists. They all come from L.A. That's where all the best talent from all the world is. Now if I'm going to shoot a video it's going to be very hard if I can't come to Los Angeles to do some preparation jobs with them. We don't know yet but I hope we can do that for sure.

Any other thoughts and comments?