restaurant where Chu ends up working. Emily Yi-Ming Liu as Chen Yi-quan, Mrs. Chen's adult daughter. Title The title of the film refers to the [pushing hands] training that is part of the grandfather's t'ai chi routine. Pushing hands is a two-person training which teaches Taiji students to yield in the face of brute force. Tai Chi teachers were persecuted in China during the Cultural Revolution, and the grandfather's family was broken up as a result. He sent his son to the West several years earlier and when he could he came to live with his family with the expectation of picking up where they left off, but he was unprepared for the very different atmosphere of the West. "Pushing Hands" thereby alludes to the process of adaptation to culture shock felt by a traditional teacher in moving to the United States. Production Development Taiwanese-born filmmaker Ang Lee had graduated from New York University Tisch School of the Arts in 1984, but had failed to find career opportunities since, working almost full-time as a house-father. During the intermediate six years, he became interested in martial arts, specifically tai chi, after reading the wuxia novel Jianghu qixia zhuan (The Story of an Extraordinary Gallant Errant). Lee first developed the idea of a film about an old man and old woman falling in love in front of their children, but did not start writing the script until he learned of a script competition being held by the Government Information Office of Taiwan. Lee began writing in February 1990, while practicing tai chi at a nearby community college. At the end of March, the script for Pushing Hands was submitted along with the one for The Wedding Banquet, which he had already written. His scripts came in first and second, respectively. The winning screenplays brought Lee to the attention of Hsu Li-kong, a recently promoted senior manager in a major studio who had a strong interest in Lee's unique style and freshness. Hsu, a first-time producer, invited Lee to direct Pushing Hands. The film was financed by the Taiwanese production company Central Motion Pictures, who also handled the film's domestic release. Lee hired Ted Hope and James Schamus of Good Machine to act as the U.S. production coordinator. Due to concerns about the international market and the American character, Ang asked Schamus to help rewrite the script. Casting The leading role of Mr.