The new tribe of talented Chinese taking over the capital

The banker
Grace Chen, 28
Born: Beijing. Father is an engineer, mother ex-army, though latterly worked for her husband. Both now retired.
Schooling: Boarder at a top Beijing middle school, won a scholarship to do A-levels at Mill Hill, securing a place at Girton Cambridge to read maths. Her parents were "not as strict" as Amy Chua's Tiger Mother stereotype but she believes discipline is "a good quality for people at any age". "I've always been a strong-willed person since I was very little".
University: A tough time - her parents couldn't pay the £20,000 international students' fees so she lived on "cheap bread from Lidl and carrots".
Big break: Worked 16-hour days in collateralised debt obligations at Morgan Stanley to pay off her parents' mortgage. Now at Hargreave Hale on the investment management side. Married a fellow Chinese banker - a director at BarCap - last year.
London life: Lives in Earl's Court. Loves London's green spaces, our "genuine meritocracy", and prefers London to Shanghai. Set up a Chinese networking organisation called SILU three years ago which has 1,300 members and meets monthly. Rather than have a big wedding, put money into a fund to support children's education in different parts of the world.

The marketing man
Heng Lu, 27
Born: Nanning, southern China. Mother a wealthy banker's daughter, father a policeman from a family of peasant civil war heroes.
Schooling: Boarding school; later got into a top high school, which he describes as "like a pressure cooker everywhere". Dreamed of travelling the world.
University: After failing to get into a top-tier Chinese university, came to the UK. Ended up at Middlesex University to study English, then Bristol for an arts foundation and finally Goldsmiths College. Embraced "south London roughness" and indie music. Came out at 21 - there was "lots of crying and shouting" at home.
Big break: Worked in tea shops to make ends meet while at Goldsmiths, then did a Masters in journalism and worked for a production company and as a TV cameraman. Now employed by a brand consultancy, assessing whether products will find a market.
London life: First boyfriend was a conservative white South African economics postgraduate. Now lives with a young Frenchman, who works in finance. Has friends of all nationalities but only a handful of Chinese. Loves British humour - "making a joke of things and moving on", and, like a born Londoner, bemoans transport delays.

The doctor
Lily Li, 26
Born: Beijing. Father went to Sheffield University to do a PhD, taking his lecturer wife and six-year-old Lily with him and the family settled here, only going back to China for visits.
Schooling: state primary, then a top independent girls' school in Sheffield. Can identify with Chua's book. "My dad would sit me down and tell me what grades I should get in maths and science exams."
University: Found Sheffield "boring" and did her medical training at Robinson College, Cambridge - "Inside I'm pretty white." Has a "pet peeve" about Chinese migrants who fail to integrate. If she married someone Chinese, "which would make my life easier", would make sure they were from the mainland, not consumerist Hong Kong.
Big break: Specialised in orthopaedics and now works at Watford General Hospital as a first-year surgical trainee. "There's little respect for the medical profession in China. If I had grown up there, I wouldn't have become a doctor." Is glad she never had to go through the Chinese education system, since it inhibits creativity, she says.
London life: Worries she sounds "really twee" but likes "nice restaurants, galleries and hanging out in Regent's Park". Finds herself standing up for China when human rights issues are raised. Would be pleased to see more mainland Chinese people get involved in politics or anything public.

The artist
Ping Zheng, 23
Born: Southern China. Father, a miner turned architect, was fined for having three other children; he wanted them all to do well academically. Mother "didn't care about anything - she was like a girl herself", neglecting her children to go dancing. She resisted divorce "like a tiger" until her husband paid her off. Ping's dad has since remarried and had another son.
Schooling: Trained at artists' studios from a young age. Poor at maths, kicked out of school for failing to attend remedial classes.
Big break: Eventually got to Beijing High School of Fine Art, which has a co-operative arrangement with Camberwell College, where she came to do a foundation course in 2007. Now in her second year at the Slade.
London life: Loves the variety of London. Has a doting Spanish landlady in Kensal Rise who
does her laundry but can't explain the experience of living in China to her and hasn't picked up much Spanish.

The actor
Ming Qiang Xie, 35
Born: Guangzhou. Mother is a high school vice-principal, father the Chinese classical
musician Xie Daoxiu.
Schooling: Primary and secondary school in Guangzhou, going down the literature route.
University: Guangdong University of International Business. Worked as a translator in his last two years.
Big break: Set up a successful online business recruiting Chinese students for universities in Australia and New Zealand. Saved up to study an MA in creative media at Warwick University.
London life: Began with a customer service job at Ladbrokes for Cantonese punters and rose to jetsetting role of marketing manager for Asia from 2004. But dream was to act in musicals and in January 2009 quit job to join the postgrad course at Mountview Academy in Wood Green - the only Asian to enrol for six years. Appears in commercials and had a cameo in Johnny English Reborn. Does translation work, teaches singing and plays badminton with a mainly Chinese crowd at Finsbury Leisure Centre. Lives in Colindale.

The entrepreneur
Kai Dai, 35
Born: Guangdong. Both parents were judges. "I'm quite honest most of the time, apart from in front of my parents. Their generation grew up in a tough environment and you don't challenge them, you just listen."
Schooling: "Very competitive" at school. Students routinely studied for 14 hours a day.
University: Medical degree in Shenyang, close to Beijing, although wasn't interested in medicine.
Big break: Founded a business after a Tanzanian student approached him to manage the after-school English classes. Within a year had 1,000 pupils. Sold out to a Chinese educational group and came to London, then Dublin, to study English. In Ireland began another business trading plastic Chinese goods. Sold it in 2007, sensing recession.
London life: Moved back to London, starting an educational consultancy, recruiting Chinese students to a range of UK language schools. Founded his own school, Central College London, in Ealing, where he also lives, which has 6,000 students. Last year launched his own UK Chinese language newspaper Chinese Weekly, with a circulation of 30,000.

The dancer
Meng Yuan, 28
Born: Shanghai. Mother worked for the Bank of China, father was a civil servant. Made to learn the piano, violin and traditional Chinese
instruments, none of which she has kept up.
Schooling: Began dancing at five and at 11 got into Shanghai Dance School. It had a "military regime" - teachers would hit students for misbehaving. Also trained at Beijing Dance Academy.
Big break: Came to the UK to learn English at 17, living in Cambridge with a couple of retired academics who became her "English
parents". Applied to the Royal Academy of Dance, where she studied for two years. Performed around the UK and developed "a Sino-balletic fusion of styles".
London life: Now mainly teaches dance and works for an international recruitment company part-time. Enjoys London's multiculturalism and is a foodie, particularly keen on pasta and Japanese cuisine.