Fong based Ah Ying on the real-life story of actress Hui So Ying and Koh Wu, a Chinese-American artist who died in Hong Kong in 1982. The platonic relationship between Hui and Koh provides the basis of this intimate film, which traces Ah Ying's struggle to realize her artistic talents in an impoverished and overcrowded home where her sisters are not interested in modern music and art. With the exception of Peter Wang, who plays Cheung, the Chinese-American drama coach and Ah Ying's mentor, the entire cast are non-professional actors. The actress who plays Ah Ying is a fish vendor in real life; her film family is her real family. A clash of cultures peculiar to Hong Kong is personified in the film's main characters and emphasized in dialogue that is a mixture of Cantonese, Mandarin and English. Variety reports, “Ah Ying is convincing because of its unpretentious naturalness. It has warmth and a lot of humanity. Fong's pic is without gimmick and will survive time....”