Before long, she was dropping into foreign combat zones to report what she found for a news program watched by thousands of high school students each morning.

"There's a certain adrenaline rush in going to these places," Ling said before her speech in Eisenhower Auditorium last night. "As scary as they were, I felt lucky . . . and fortunate to have been able to go."

Ling, who left broadcasting from the battlefield to be a co-host on ABC's daytime talk show The View, said she has been itching to report again after Sept. 11.

"I definitely have felt the desire to be in the mix a little more," she said.

During her two trips to Afghanistan — before and after the Taliban regime took over — Ling witnessed a remarkable shift from internecine chaos to a suppressive brand of order.

In 1994, she encountered young boys roaming a desolate landscape who were adept at aiming bazookas, but couldn't do basic math or tell her how old they were.

"These were boys who literally had no life in their eyes," she told the audience. "All they knew was how to shoot a gun."

Three years later, Ling saw how people she met in Afghanistan seemed to hope that the new regime would offer peace for a war-torn country. "It seemed more civilized," she remembers.

But beneath the veneer, Ling said the Taliban was imposing "absolutely abhorrently strict policies."

A man who approached her once in a marketplace to whisper complaints about the regime was later beaten with Kalashnikov rifles by Taliban guards, she said.

Before the terror attacks, Ling had planned to focus most of her lecture on the struggles of Asian-Americans in entertainment and media.

She said last night that the industry is ripe for Asian-American men and women to get into the business and secure more leading roles that go beyond the current stereotypes of kung-fu fighter, computer whiz and sexy temptress.

At the same time, she encouraged people — especially from within the Asian-American community — not to disparage actors who may use these roles as a foothold to broaden their repertoire later.

Krista Fledderman (senior-advertising and public relations), who said she identifies with the young female voice Ling brings to The View, said that the message of diversity in entertainment is one that should be repeated.

"That's definitely something people (in the field) need to hear," Fledderman said.

Ling said she did not escape ridicule and racist remarks as a Chinese-American growing up in a mostly white Sacramento, Ca., high school, but said she is thankful for the opportunities that helped her launch her career at an early age.

In a green suit and slim brown high-heeled boots, she told the audience last night, however, that she does not have much patience for people who confuse her with actress Lucy Liu.

"Wrong Asian . . . I'm taller," she said.