When I first came to Guangzhou in 1981, it seemed such a hard and dour place with everyone in Chairman Mao uniforms.

People don't talk to you properly. It's the way they talk to you; they dismiss you. I think it's a combination of me being a woman and a foreigner.

You really have to have a goal.

Good education is so important. We do need to look at the way people are taught. It not just about qualifications to get a job. It's about being educated.

I used to not like being called a 'woman architect.' I'm an architect, not just a woman architect. The guys used to tap me on the head and say 'you're OK for a girl.' But I see an incredible amount of need from other women for reassurance that it can be done, so I don't mind anymore.

They all come out from the same thing; all the projects are connected somehow.

The idea for a building or an object can come up just as quick, but there is a big difference in process.