Ang Lee won the best director award for Life of Pi at the Academy Awards Sunday Night, and it was his emotional acceptance speech that touched many nations across the world.

Lee won the award for Life of Pi, a 3D epic movie based on the book of the same name by Yann Martel and filmed mostly in the director's native Taiwan.

"Thank you. Thank you so much. Thank you, movie god. I really need to share this with all 3,000. Everybody who worked with me on Life of Pi. I want to thank you for... I really want to thank you for believing in this story and share this incredible journey with me," Lee said.

Ang Lee's best director win at this year's Academy Awards unleashed a wave of pride on Chinese social media sites Monday.

"Congratulations to Ang Lee for winning best director! The pride of Chinese people!" Guangzhou-based journalist Gu Jian wrote on Sina Corp.'s Twitter-like Weibo microblogging service.

Lee Gang, the director's brother, said he thought Life of Pi might not be a favorite because the theme isn't mainstream. The shipwreck story of an Indian boy on a boat with a tiger was created with a production team of international artistic and visual effects workers, whose efforts helped the film take home the most awards of Sunday evening's ceremony with a total of four.

Lee said the key setting for the movie was a large water tank built at a studio in Taiwan, and allowed the crew to use its imagination freely and not be restrained by Hollywood values.

"I cannot make this movie with the help of Taiwan. We shot there. I want to thank everybody there helped us. Especially the city of Tai Chong. My Indian crew, I love you. My Canadian crew, I love you"

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Oscars