\n<\/p>\n
Her school promoted patriarchal values, she said.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s a sense that you need to grow up to become a virtuous wife or mother. You are taught to be very small and submissive \u2026 don\u2019t talk, just smile, always defer to someone else and don\u2019t take up space,\u201d she said.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cThere was a lot of conditioning. And as an adult, I am very angry about it.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Amid these struggles, Tan said she also encountered a ghost in her bedroom.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cI was on my computer chatting at 3am, with the radio on. Suddenly, the radio became very loud, very soft and then very loud. No one was touching it. My room became very cold, even though I didn\u2019t turn on the air-conditioner. You just feel like somebody is there.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cI turned off the lights, jumped into bed and covered myself with a blanket. I felt someone sitting on me. To be honest, I thought I was going to die. It was super terrifying,\u201d she said of the ghost encounter, which she also wrote into the film.<\/span><\/p>\n Many people Tan told thought she was crazy.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cMy mother told me there\u2019s no such thing. Psychologically, it really did something to me because my mother didn\u2019t even believe me, and I was supposed to just forget this extremely terrifying episode of my life,\u201d she said.<\/span><\/p>\n