Early Life in Rural China

• 🇨🇳 Jiaoying Summers recounts her childhood in Linzhou, a mountain city in Hunan Province, China, where she grew up in a village with her grandparents.
• 🚴 She remembers riding her bike to school at 6 AM and spending summers catching crabs and fish in local rivers.
• 🌸 Her mother ran a restaurant, and Jiaoying helped by picking wildflowers for the tables and later worked as a waitress from the age of eight.
• 📚 Despite a village accent and simple clothing, she excelled academically, going from being ranked 200th to 1st in her class to protect her siblings from bullying.

Family and Early Business Ventures

• 👨‍👩‍👧‍👦 Jiaoying has a younger sister and brother, and her parents are still together due to traditional views on divorce in their region.
• 🍻 Her father, initially smart and charming, became an alcoholic, while her mother was the hardworking force behind the family's success.
• 🍽️ Her mother's ambition led her to lease and eventually own multiple restaurants, one of which Jiaoying later discovered was a brothel.
• 🐶 A poignant memory involves her beloved childhood dog, a mix of Akita and German Shepherd, which was tragically killed and cooked by a relative while she was away, an event that still deeply affects her.

Navigating Education and Bullying

• 🏫 Upon transferring to a city school, Jiaoying and her siblings faced bullying due to their village accent and appearance, motivating her to improve academically and socially.
• 🥊 In middle school, she experienced early mornings with 6 AM classes and late evening sessions, while also dealing with her sister's troubles.
• 🎬 Even as a child, she dreamed of Hollywood and sold Japanese pornography illegally at a cousin's video store while doing homework.
• 🥋 In high school, after her sister was physically assaulted by a bully, Jiaoying fiercely defended her, resulting in the bully breaking bones and losing teeth, though they later became friends.

Transition to America and Learning English

• 🇺🇸 Jiaoying applied to 100 schools and accepted an offer from the University of Kentucky's ESL program as a pathway to America.
• 🗣️ She learned English by attending church and AA meetings, finding them more effective than formal classes where she felt treated like a child.
• 💼 To support herself, she worked various under-the-table jobs, including waitressing and cleaning bathrooms, as she was not legally permitted to work full-time.
• 🎓 She left her final semester before graduating, inspired by Brad Pitt's decision to move to LA after his last semester, to pursue her own move to Hollywood.

Personal Growth and Cultural Insights

• 💄 In college, Jiaoying transformed from an insecure "ugly duckling" to a confident individual after becoming a math tutor and experiencing a pivotal moment at a party.
• 🤝 She notes the significant cultural difference in China regarding skin tone, where lighter skin is associated with wealth and not working outdoors, contrasting with the American ideal of a tan representing vacation and wealth.
• 💔 Jiaoying lost her virginity in Kentucky to a white American boy at age 20, noting the different expectations in dating and relationships between Chinese and American cultures, particularly regarding financial contributions.
• 💼 Driven by her entrepreneurial mother and a desire to avoid being a struggling artist, Jiaoying studied finance and worked in a hedge fund to support her acting aspirations.