Li Mei leaves provincial life in rural China for the city of Chongqing. She gets involved with a gangster called Spikey, who paradoxically becomes her exit ticket to the West, an idealized image that will prove to be as rough as the reality she leaves behind. In London, she tries to adapt to her new life, despite language problems and cultural collisions. She strives to define her identity in a world that is increasingly globalized, and where crossing borders – both actual and metaphoric ones – become central aspects of the identity construction. mft