My Family History

Faye Wong 天后( her name means Heavenly Queen) was born in Beijing on 8 August 1969. Her father was a factory engineer who had to work very often, and her mother was a soprano, always traveling on the road to perform, so her family seldom spent time together. But she had a god-mother who was her next door neighbor. Faye’s god-mother loved Faye as if she was her own. At the age of 18, Faye's father arranged for her to go to Hong Kong. After modeling school, her father introduced her to Di An Tsong to develop her singing. Faye’s teachers cherished her, and involved her in many school events. When the teacher introduced Faye to Chan Tsiau Bao, he was astonished by her voice, and encouraged her to sign a record contract. When her parents signed her first record contract with Cinepoly, she was only 19 years old, and there were many things she did not understand. Without any worries, she released her first album “The day with no patience," and stumbled into a golden record. 

She came to a wider public attention in the early 1990s by singing ballads in Cantonese. Since 1994 she has recorded mostly in her native Mandarin, often combining alternative music with mainstream Chinese pop. In 2000 she was recognised by Guinness World Records as the Best Selling Canto-Pop Female. Following her second marriage in 2005 she withdrew from the limelight, but returned to the stage in 2010. Hugely popular in Mainland China, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Singapore, she has also gained a large following in Japan. Wong is known to be reserved in public, and has gained a reputation for her "coolness". In the Encyclopedia of Contemporary Chinese Culture, Jeroen de Kloet characterised her as "singer, actress, mother, celebrity, royalty, sex symbol and diva all at the same time".