Tall and fair-complexioned, Li's long hair falls over her curvy body, which is enclosed in a sporty sleeveless shirt and low waist jeans. She looks feminine. 'I'm not a feminist, demanding absolute equality with men,' she says, 'but I'm concerned with women's issues and I would like to tell stories about them from a woman's perspective.'

It's a far cry from her predecessors in the first three decades after 1949, when female directors were few on the mainland and macho-dramas about battles and political leaders dominated the big screen. But as society has progressed, an increasing number of women have moved into the director's chair and begun to air their own voices.

As a rising star of the new generation of female directors, Li has been attracting attention with her feature films telling about the changes for mainland women since the 1980s. Her latest work, Dam Street, relates the story of a woman and her 10-year-old son whom she was forced to abandon when she was an unmarried high school student in 1983. The film is competing at the Venice International Film Festival, which started on Wednesday, in the Horizons section showcasing new trends in the cinema.

It's not the first time that Li has attended this prestigious film event. Four years ago, she brought home the Elvira Notari Prize - an award for female directors - for her debut Fish and Elephant, which tells how a lesbian pair's relationship becomes complicated after the intervention of one partner's mother and a young girl.

The film's subject matter precluded a release on the mainland, but Li has taken no chances with Dam Street, avoiding scenes of a sexual nature and cutting footage of gangsters which offended the censors.

'It will enhance my career if I can get an award,' says Li, 'but compared with a possible award, I still care more about the domestic audience and the domestic market. I don't want to be a director who suffers losses in office takings.

'No one wants to invest in such a director's works.'

With Dam Street released on the mainland last week, Li will soon be able to gauge how the domestic audience, and particularly females, react to her works. 'It's a film for women to reflect on the progress they have made,' says Li. 'Just a few days ago, I read in a local newspaper that a 16-year-old girl gave birth to her baby with the help of her parents and without being expelled from the school. I asked myself, 'What kind of fate Xiaoyun [the mother in Dam Street] would have if she lived in today's society?''

The answer seems not optimistic. In Li's view, while economic liberalisation awoke self-awareness in mainland women, it also brought its share of problems.

'As the door suddenly opened, we seemed to have more choices and more freedom, but this also brought more confusion,' she says. 'We lost our faith and became more and more restless.'

Li's path into the movie industry illustrates mainland women's new sense of identity. Born in Jinan, the capital city of Shandong province, Li was selected to host a children's programme for a local television station at 16.

After she graduated with a degree in Chinese Language from Shandong University, she followed her mother's wish to continue the anchorwoman job.

But as she grew more interested in camera work, she went to Beijing-based CCTV to become a documentary maker, which finally led her to work on the big screen.

'My mother wished I could become an anchorwoman,' Li says. 'It seems to be an ideal job for women as it is comfortable and stable. What's more, you can dress smoothly all the time. Compared with it, being a director is tiring and insecure. She thinks it's a job for men, but I love working creatively instead of sitting before the camera like a doll.'

Li isn't the only one to have moved from in front of the camera to behind it. Xu Jinglei, one of the si da ming dan (four famous actresses) along with Zhang Ziyi, Zhao Wei and Zhou Xun, won the best director prize for her second film A Letter from an Unknown Woman at San Sebastian Film Festival last year.

This time in Venice, Li is competing against a craft 'sister' at the same section. Ning Ying, whose Railroad of Hope won the Grand Prix at the Festival du Reel in 2002, brought her latest work Perpetual Motion, which features China's four female decision makers in publishing, writing and cuisine and architecture telling their life stories.

'As women, we made films for ourselves,' Li says. 'We don't care what men think of it. That's our biggest difference from male directors.'