Taipei, March 6 (Reuters): Taiwan cheered a local boy who made good today when Ang Lee won the Oscar for best director, the first Asian to win one of Hollywood’s highest accolades.

The Taiwan-born director won for Brokeback Mountain, a movie about two cowboys who fall in love, but was upset in the best picture category by Los Angeles-based drama Crash.

Taiwan President Chen Shui-bian immediately issued a statement hailing Lee’s success, calling the filmmaker the “glory of Taiwan”.

The director’s younger brother Khan Lee attributed his sibling’s success to his ability to treat other cultures with respect and sensitivity.

“When he deals with other people’s culture he is especially sincere. You can feel his sincerity,” said Khan Lee, who is also a filmmaker.

“We grew up watching the Oscars. Now it’s like the dream comes true,” he said, popping a bottle of champagne in his Taipei office, where he watched the Academy Awards with his mother and friends.

People around the country were glued to television screens in the middle of the Asian workday this morning to watch the three-and-a-half hour ceremony.

“My colleagues don’t usually follow the news, but their eyes were glued to the screen of the television in the restaurant and everybody who was watching the broadcast cried out when they heard the news,” said Lynn Lin, 32, an executive at a Taipei engineering consultancy.

Lee’s edgy cowboy romance has grossed more than $1 million in ticket sales in Taiwan. President Chen even referred to the movie when he talked about the island’s relations with the US during a recent speech.

Accepting his award, Ang Lee said he made the movie for his father who died recently and thanked everyone in Taiwan, Hong Kong and China.

“I feel happy from the bottom of my heart,” said Lee’s mother, Lee Yang Shi-chuang, overcome with emotion.

The 51-year-old Lee was born in Pingtung in southern Taiwan and went to the US in 1978 to study film. He became a household name when his Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, a Chinese-language martial arts film set in the 19th century, won the Academy Awards for best foreign language film, cinematography, art direction and music in 2001.