Ming Lee (turning red)

Ming Lee is the overarching protagonist of Pixar's 25th full-length animated feature film Turning Red. She is Mei's overprotective mother, and while she is aware of her daughter's panda form, she is unaware of Mei's plots to go to the concert of a boy band she dislikes.

Ming is described to be a proud, devoted mother and wife. She is a hard worker who can come off as crazy or intense, but it all comes from a place of love. Ming is also overbearing towards other people, even strangers, and is not afraid to hurt them.

Ming has a complex relationship with her daughter, Mei. She is an overbearing mother who relies on Mei to be her perfect, dutiful daughter. The two of them do nearly everything together, such as maintain the family temple, and get along like friends. However, as Mei transitions into a teenager and begins to develop new interests, such as a crush or the boy band 4★Town, Ming fiercely disapproves of these changes. Ming is also not a fan of Miriam, Mei's friend, as she believes her to be a bad influence on her daughter.[1]

After Mei's red panda powers activate, Ming becomes very observant of Mei's life, like a helicopter parent, as she begins openly watching her at school. Ming is adamant that Mei find a way keep her emotions, and therefore her panda form, in check. However, she only does so out of a legitimate concern that her daughter's powers may get out of control and cause her or others to get hurt.

Ming's anxieties and flaws stem from when she went through the Red Panda transformation herself, along with the overbearing demands from her own mother, Wu, that she be the perfect daughter. It reached a boiling point when Ming and Wu got into an argument regarding Jin, whom Wu did not approve of. Ming reached her breaking point and unleashed her panda, causing her to hurt her mother (and presumably leave the scar on Wu's brow), which left an emotional scar in Ming that she never truly got over, and the incident caused a divide between them ever since.