“My mood was very bad. I lost my temper over even trifling things. I couldn’t even handle my father’s funeral affairs. I felt I had no strength. After taking drugs to lift my mood, I just stayed at home looking dazed all day. My mom told me to snap out of it. My doctor was afraid that I might do something stupid, like attempting suicide,” she said.

Lee credits her family and friends for helping her get through the most difficult period in her life. “In times of adversity, you have to mostly rely on yourself to overcome it,” she says. “But family’s understanding is also very important. My mother and siblings give me a lot of support when I have difficulties in life.

“They are by my side throughout. They are tolerant of my mood swings during the bad times. After losing my temper, I do apologise to them.”

While she has been working out regularly at the gym for more than two decades, she only recently “found” her abs when she went to China for work. Knowing she had to undergo a two-week quarantine in her hotel room, she came prepared with her gym equipment. Before this lockdown, she visited the gym three to five days a week. But with little else to do in the hotel, she worked out every day – “and the six-pack abs came”.

Her two-hour gym routines include using weights to work on her abdominal muscles, buttocks, upper arms, back, chest and shoulders. She follows strength training with sit-ups. And she watches what she eats.

“I have a simple breakfast of cereals or two eggs with a banana. I won’t let myself eat too much for breakfast, as it will affect my gym training. I have a light lunch after the workout, of fruit and yogurt.”

Hong Kong singer-actress Lesley Chiang on how a song saved her life

Lee started out in show business after being spotted by a talent scout in 1990 when she was working as an air hostess. Her other early film roles included The Wicked City (1992), Loving You (1995), The Odd One Lives (1997), and the North American film Knock Off (1998) with Jean-Claude Van Damme.

Lee, who became a household name after playing the ethereal-looking and reclusive martial arts heroine Little Dragon Maiden, is an object of fascination in entertainment news, for her youthful looks.

Online fitness classes: a yoga studio, gym and dance company on embracing virtual workouts

“I will star in Thunderstorm [a theatre performance based on the classic play of the same name written by Cao Yu]. I have never worked in theatre before.

“During the pandemic when my work was suspended, I made use of the time to write about how I overcame the lowest points in my life and my beauty secrets. My thoughts will be collated into a book for publication, hopefully next year.”

Charity work is another new-found passion. Last year, she visited orphans in Beijing and nurses in several Chinese hospitals. During the pandemic, she took part in International Nurses Day on May 12, when she held online sessions to encourage nurses from hospitals in Inner Mongolia, Shanghai, Changsha and Wuhan.

“I hope the pandemic will be over soon so that I can visit them in person. My thoughts about charity work have changed. Before, I thought celebrities do charity work just for show. I felt they do it for the sake of doing it. I would rather do it privately without associating my name with charity work.

“But over the past year, under the persuasion of my agent who said my thinking is too narrow-minded, I came around to the idea that public figures should use their influence to help more people in need.”