"I just walked into the bar, and there were a few black dudes playing my songs! I was like, 'Did you know I wrote these songs?'" Qu recalls.

That led to a jam session with the band, giving the audience a pleasant surprise. "I still do this kind of thing all the time. If I feel like sharing my music, any time and anywhere, I'll do it."

And just as Coldplay has and Sarah McLachlan , the name Wanting Qu is synonymous with and which she is asked to sing in all her gigs. "Oh that sucks. I didn't just write one song, guys. Listen to my other songs. You may like [them] too," she says.

With her second studio recording riding high on the charts - and a North American tour scheduled for next February - Qu doesn't seem to be suffering from the "difficult second album" syndrome.

The success of has only motivated her to come up with something even better, Qu says.

She reckons she has matured as an artist during the past couple of years, and her goals are clearer: her new release, recorded in Los Angeles, "weighs more power and attitude, and delivers more messages in the songs".

, for example, explores the aftermath of cyberbullying, something Qu experienced first-hand last August. When she and her record label Universal Music filed a lawsuit against Li Daimo and a television station for using her version of in a commercial, and thus infringing the song's copyright, the online community accused her of being ungrateful.

"I got attacked by lots of people [on the mainland] online, saying I am a greedy bitch, that I am just trying to make lots of money and I should go back to Canada. There is worse stuff I have read," she says. (The case was eventually settled out of court.)

Initially feeling hurt and misunderstood, Qu eventually realised she was not alone. She saw an educational video on the internet made by a group of elementary school kids in America that received nasty comments.

"Then I got really upset because these kids don't deserve these bad words. I felt for them because I experienced the same thing," she says, adding the incident inspired her latest single. "I hope they can hear my song, and know everyone [can be a target] too."

It may sound like a cliché but the singer hopes her work can help make the world a better place. Music has had a big impact on her own life.

Qu had a hard time as a young adult - not doing well at school, suffering a bad break-up, and being pressured by her mother to get a doctorate at Harvard - and at one point thought she didn't have a future.

"I was listening to Sarah McLachlan and I didn't kill myself," says Qu, who has a degree in international business.

"I was not happy, and thinking what if I disappear from the world? Would anyone remember me? I am nobody. But Sarah's music helped me."

Now, it's her turn to help others. She remembers returning to her hotel from a gig one night to find a fan waiting in the lobby with his girlfriend. The boy later told her had saved him from killing himself. "That's a very touching story but I went through the same as well."

One of her ambitions is to open a music school in China or Canada. "I have seen a lot of exchange students studying commerce, but not music," says the tourism ambassador for Vancouver.

"I figure it would be a good bridge for kids to get to know different culture and experience the arts and music scene in both places."

Qu is the first Chinese artist signed by her label Nettwerk back in North America and she hopes many more will follow in her footsteps.

"I want to be an example and show [youngsters] that if I can do music, you can do whatever you want too - a magician, a dancer, or an Olympian," says Qu.

"Just don't let your parents dictate your life."