Siu-kwan was the Western-educated aunt and love interest of the protagonist, Chinese folk hero Wong Fei-hung in the film Once Upon a Time in China.
[2] Wong Fei-hung respectfully calls Siu-kwan "Thirteenth Aunt", in accordance with Chinese traditions emphasizing generations and family status.
After Thirteenth Aunt was educated for three years in Great Britain, she returned to China with interests in photography and filmmaking and went into business.
She does not know any martial arts and defers to Wong in his company but is courageous and assertive, using her knowledge of steam engines and motion pictures to help preserve Chinese tradition (often in the face of foreign pressure).
Palmer and Lau wrote, "Thirteenth Aunt negotiates the terrain between tradition and modernity without any sacrifices and she lives in a world of (male) violence without being either destroyed or co-opted by it".