He beat Michael Haneke for "Amour," Benh Zeitlin for "Beasts of the Southern Wild," Steven Spielberg for "Lincoln" and David O. Russell for "Silver Linings Playbook" to win the golden statue.

　　"Life of Pi" features a young Indian named Pi, who finds the world he knows swept away when his family sells their zoo and sets sail for Canada with a few of its remaining animals. When a storm capsizes the ship, only Pi escapes and is set adrift in a lifeboat that is also the refuge of an enormous Bengal tiger.

　　"I really want to thank you for believing this story and sharing this incredible journey with me," Lee said in his acceptance speech.

　　The film also won three other Oscars Sunday night, for best original score, best cinematography and best stunning visual effects. It won more awards than "Lincoln" and "Argo," which were also among the hottest nominees.

　　Coming from China's Taiwan, the 58-year-old Lee won an Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film in 2001 for "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" and another for Best Director in 2006 for "Brokeback Mountain". He is the only person of Asian descent to win the directing gong and one of a handful to have won that award more than once.

　　In an after-ceremony interview by Chinese media, Lee said he believed Asian films would come to the main stage of the world sooner or later. "I was born in Asia and grown up with Chinese education. It is natural for me to put Asian thinking into Western things."

　　"This film of mine is about India. So it can be seen as an Asian film, although it uses English language," Lee said in Chinese.

　　The film, which cost 120 million U.S. dollars, has earned nearly 600 million dollars worldwide. Lee said most of the earnings came from outside China.

　　Lee said he felt warm that he won the award on the day of the Lantern Festival, a Chinese traditional festival on which families get together, eating Tang Yuan, a food made from sticky rice.