69 Facts About Faye Wong

Faye Wong is a Chinese singer-songwriter and actress.

Faye Wong debuted with the Cantonese album Shirley Wong in 1989 and came to public attention by combining alternative music with mainstream Chinese pop.

Later in her career, Faye Wong has recorded mostly in her native Mandarin, with some songs in English, Japanese, and Sanskrit.

One of the biggest pop stars in the Chinese-speaking world, Faye Wong has gained followings in Japan and Southeast Asia.

Faye Wong is known to be a "diva with few words" in public, and has gained a reputation for her "cool" personality.

Faye Wong was born at Peking Union Medical College Hospital in Dongcheng District, Beijing in the midst of the Cultural Revolution.

Faye Wong's father was Wang Youlin, a mining engineer and second son of Wang Zhaomin aka Wang Molin, member of the Legislative Yuan of the Republic of China.

Faye Wong had a brother named Wang Yi, who was two years older than her and passed away in his fifties due to illness.

Faye Wong grew up in the Qingniangou area near Andingmen, where the residential communities affiliated with the coal mining industry were situated.

Faye Wong attended Ditan Primary School, where she served as the class's arts and cultural coordinator.

Faye Wong then attended the Beijing No 145 Middle School, before transferring to Beijing Dongzhimen Middle School.

However, since Faye Wong did not know a word of Cantonese, the language spoken in Hong Kong, she experienced great loneliness.

In 1989, her debut album Shirley Faye Wong sold 25,000 copies and won her bronze at the "Chik Chak New Artist Award".

Under the arrangement of Lo, who founded Music Factory in 1990, Faye Wong went to the United States for professional training at the end of 1991.

Faye Wong initially went to Los Angeles with plans to learn keyboards, but missed the class registration deadline.

Faye Wong then moved to New York, living with Wawa, another new artist signed by Lo, at the house of Lo's sister, Jennifer, in Flushing.

Faye Wong attended classes at the Barbizon School, the Martha Graham School and with personal singing tutors for about two months.

Faye Wong stated in a 1994 concert that she very much liked this song, after which various websites listed it as her personal favourite; however, in a 1998 CNN interview she declined to name one favourite song, saying that there were too many, and in 2003 she stated that she no longer liked her old songs.

One of the songs on Coming Home, "Fragile Woman", a cover of a Japanese song "Rouge" originally composed by Miyuki Nakajima and sung by Naomi Chiaki, became Faye Wong's first hit after being featured in the popular TVB drama The Greed of Man.

Faye Wong has named the Scottish post-punk group Cocteau Twins among her favourite bands, and their influence was clear on her next Cantonese album, Random Thoughts.

Besides covering songs and learning distinctive vocal techniques, Faye Wong recorded her own compositions: "Pledge", co-written with her then-boyfriend, Beijing rock star Dou Wei, as well as her first and only spoken-word song "Exit".

Besides two Cantonese albums in 1994, Faye Wong released two other albums in Mandarin in Taiwan, Mystery and Sky, which propelled her to fame in the Mandarin-speaking world.

Faye Wong was frequently in touch with the Beijing rock scene, where Dou Wei was a leading light and whose influence distinguished her from the mainstream pop music in Hong Kong.

Faye Wong did not sell well in Hong Kong, but did quite well in Taiwan and mainland China.

Na had been a regular at the annual CCTV New Year's Gala, the most-watched TV show in mainland China and the world, and she invited Faye Wong to do a duet with her on the upcoming show in 1998.

Thanks to this exposure, in late 1998 Faye Wong finally held her first concert in her native mainland, and continued her tour in 9 cities.

The video game Final Fantasy VIII was released in Japan in February 1999, for which Faye Wong recorded the ballad "Eyes on Me" in English.

The entire album was penned by Albert Leung, who, like Faye Wong, was suffering from a broken heart in his love life at the time.

Faye Wong became a spokesperson for JPhone in October, 1999, performing in several commercials which aired in Japan.

Faye Wong cited the two folk-style songs written by Singaporean singer-songwriter Tanya Chua as her favourite picks on her album.

Faye Wong sang on tracks with other celebrities such as Tony Leung, Anita Mui, and Aaron Kwok.

Faye Wong recorded several other solo non-album tracks, such as the eponymous hit theme song to Hero and a Buddhist song containing similar sounds to some of her work on her album Fu Zao.

Faye Wong was awarded pan-Asian female artist of the year at the sixth CCTV-MTV Music Honors.

Two months later, Faye Wong wed Li Yapeng in Xinjiang, with only a small marriage banquet held in Beijing, and their daughter Li Yan was born the following year.

Faye Wong did come out to sing "Wishing We Last Forever" in May 2008 at a CCTV fundraising event for Sichuan earthquake victims, and "Heart Sutra" in May 2009 for a Buddhist ceremony at the Famen Temple.

In May 2009, Faye Wong shot an ad for "Royal Wind" shampoo, sparking speculation that it would be the first step in her comeback.

Faye Wong made her comeback at the 2010 CCTV New Year's Gala, covering Li Jian's ballad "Legend".

Since then, Faye Wong has sporadically released singles, mostly theme songs for Chinese movies.

Faye Wong attends fashion shows, shoots advertisements, and makes appearances in gala performances on national TV.

On 30 December 2016, Wong hosted her first concert in six years, "Faye's Moments Live 2016", at the Mercedes-Benz Cultural Centre in Shanghai, with a VR live webcast via the Tencent Video website watched by 20 million online audience.

Singer and producer Tiger Hu stated that Faye Wong did go off-key during the VR live broadcast but explained that the audio fidelity was too high, which is why the stadium audience didn't complain as much as the online audience.

In 2018, Faye Wong participated in two variety shows, Hunan TV's PhantaCity and CCTV-3's National Treasure II.

Early in her career, Faye Wong acted in Hong Kong TV dramas, such as The Legendary Ranger, The File of Justice II and Eternity.

Faye Wong received international acclaim for her performance in Faye Wong Kar-wai's Chungking Express, which earned her the Best Actress Award at the 1996 Stockholm International Film Festival.

Faye Wong worked on the project intermittently over the next few years, when her schedule allowed, until it was completed in 2004.

In 2000, Faye Wong starred alongside Leslie Cheung and Tony Leung Ka-fai in Okinawa Rendez-vous, where she had her first on-screen kiss.

Faye Wong's performance earned her a Best Actress nomination at the 22nd Hong Kong Film Awards and the Best Actress Award at the 9th Hong Kong Film Critics Society Awards.

In 2004, Faye Wong starred opposite Leon Lai in the romance film Leaving Me, Loving You.

Faye Wong used to be an active Weibo user under the name "veggieg", with a talkative, funny presence online.

Faye Wong has a private Instagram account under the name "feibeing".

Faye Wong has been a Buddhist since the early 1990s and has released numerous Buddhist songs.

Faye Wong donated an additional 900 million HKD to the project.

Faye Wong has been friends with religious figures such as Ogyen Trinley Dorje and Tsultrim Pelgyi Rinpoche, who wrote the lyrics for her song "Prayer".

In 2013, Faye Wong was involved in a high-profile expose of the self-proclaimed qigong master Wang Lin, who had maintained extensive connections among Chinese celebrities.

Faye Wong then started dating Dou and, in June 1996, married him.

Faye Wong had an on-and-off relationship with Hong Kong star Nicholas Tse from early 2000 to late 2003, until Cecilia Cheung became involved.

Later that year, Faye Wong began a relationship with Chinese actor Li Yapeng but did not go public until 2004.

In 2006, Faye Wong gave birth to their daughter, Li Yan.

Faye Wong gave their reason for seeking medical treatment in California: due to the severity of Li Yan's cleft, the reconstructive surgeries she needed were not available in China.

On 26 December 2006, Faye Wong made her first public appearance since 2005 at the foundation's inaugural fundraising ball.

Faye Wong opted not to speak or sing, but her new composition "Cheerful Angel" debuted at the event as the charity's official theme song.

At the second fundraising ball on 8 December 2007, Faye Wong sang an electronica-infused version of the Diamond Sutra for the event.

The focus of Faye Wong's concerts has always been on her vocal performance.

Faye Wong has given concerts in North America, Australia and Southeast Asia.

In 2004 and 2005, Faye Wong was ranked in the top five on the Forbes China Celebrity 100, as well as in 2011 and 2012 after her comeback.

In 2009, to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the People's Republic of China, a government web portal conducted an online poll on The Most Influential Chinese Cultural Celebrity in the Past 60 Years; out of 192 candidates, Faye Wong received over 7 million votes, second only to the deceased Teresa Teng from Taiwan, Faye Wong's own personal idol.

Faye Wong's name was mentioned in the 2003 Japanese film The Blue Light as one of the protagonist's favourites.

The female protagonist in the 2013 Chinese film Beijing Flickers was prototyped after Faye Wong, according to director Zhang Yuan, who remembered when he shot his 1993 hit Beijing Bastards with Dou Wei, Faye Wong as Dou's girlfriend would visit the set every day.

Japanese singer-actress Hikari Mitsushima said that Faye Wong was her idol and muse; she performed Faye Wong's Cantopop song "Dreams" at the 2024 Megaport Music Festival, in Kaohsiung, Taiwan.