She and her family suffered under political changes imposed following the Chinese Communist Revolution, and at age 21 she managed to move to Hong Kong during a brief relaxation of border controls due to the Hundred Flowers Campaign.

Though an uncredited role, it led to more work from international studios beginning with an American-Japanese movie, filmed in 1959 and released six years later as Three Weeks of Love, in which she played the girlfriend of leading man Tony Russel's character.

White actors were cast in the main Chinese roles, while she had a non-speaking part as a lady-in-waiting to the Empress Dowager Cixi played by Dame Flora Robson.

[4][2] As part of the movie's publicity, she appeared in a photo spread in the American magazine Look, modeling clothing designed by Dynasty of Hong Kong on the film set.

In 1969 she had a recurring role in the soap opera Coronation Street playing Jasmine Chong, a rich young woman from Singapore who was dating Billy Walker.

But as time went on she was more often credited as "Lucille Soong", a name she first adopted in China, and it was under that name she appeared in newspaper publicity articles, gossip columns, and photographs while socializing with the rich and famous amidst London's Swinging Sixties.

Unknown and initially unwelcome there, during that time she relied on funding from her London properties, opened a clothing store, worked as a realtor, became a sculptor — producing alabaster artwork exhibited and sold in New York and California — and maintained an active social and networking life.

[2][6] With that breakthrough, she found her niche in comedy and was booked on episodes of the popular sitcoms Dharma & Greg, According to Jim, and The King of Queens, and in the 2003 film Freaky Friday with Jamie Lee Curtis and Lindsay Lohan.