Actors - Faye Wong

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	Actors - Faye Wong

Faye Wong, or Wang Fei () (born August 8, 1969 in Beijing, now a Hong Kong citizen) is an extremely popular singer in Asia, especially in mainland China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia, and more recently in Japan and to some extent in the West.

She is believed by critics and fans alike to be the most commercially and artistically distinguished female vocalist in Chinese music history, with a following so large and devoted that media in Hong Kong, Taiwan and mainland China often place the title tiānhou, (天后; diva or goddess) before her name while Japanese fans call her "Diva of Asia". Shy and intensely private, she is one of the very few people widely popular on both sides of the Taiwan straits despite her aggressive avoidance of the media. According to The Guinness Book of Records, she has sold 9.7 millons copies of all her albums as of March 2000. Not only openly admired by well-known celebrities around the world, she was also labeled as the gay icon among the gay community. She has acted in several TV shows and films, most memorably in Wong Kar-wai's Chungking Express
, a role that garnered her international acclaim, as well as the award for "Best Actress" at the 1994 Stockholm Film Festival; and his most recent 2046
, starring as an android and one of Tony Leung's love interests. She is known not only to many Final Fantasy fans for her Final Fantasy VIII theme "Eyes On Me", but also as the spokeswoman of such brands as Head & Shoulders shampoo and Pepsi-Cola. She was chosen by director Zhang Yimou to record the theme song for the critically acclaimed film Hero.

Early years

Born in Beijing, People's Republic of China, she was originally named 夏琳 (Xia Lin), adopting her mother's maiden name because the Wong family was persecuted during the Cultural Revolution (her grandfather was once a congressman in the Republic of China). At the age of 15, several years after the turmoil ended, her name was changed to Wong Fei (王菲). She inherited a talent for music from her mother, who was a soprano, and recorded several low-cost albums in high school covering the songs of Teresa Teng, her personal idol.

In 1987, she moved with her family to Hong Kong and began her musical career after a brief stint as a model. She signed a contract with Cinepoly and released three albums under the stage name Shirley Wong (王靖雯, pinyin Wang Jingwen). Containing a large number of covers of songs by artists from the US and Japan, these albums attracted little attention and a lukewarm response from critics. Frustrated with her career direction, she decided to take some time off in 1991 and travel to New York for vocal studies and cultural exchange. This brief hiatus would prove to be important for her artistic development.

During her absence, Cinepoly released a few compilations repackaging songs from her three albums, thereby keeping her somewhat visible at the record stores.

Rise to fame

Back to Hong Kong

A year after returning to Hong Kong, she burst into the spotlight with her new album Coming Home, which incorporated R&B influences like her previous two and was a drastic change in musical direction from the more traditional Cantopop fare of her earlier albums. On this album, she covered the song "Fragile Woman," originally sung by the Japanese music diva Miyuki Nakajima. While this song had been covered by other Chinese singers, her angelic version nonetheless swept over Hong Kong and singlehandedly lifted her to superstardom. Also, she sang her first English-language song, "Kisses in the Wind," and starred in TVB shows such as Files of Justice II (壹號皇庭II) and Legendary Ranger (原振俠).

Changing her style

Not satisfied to rest on her laurels, she also wrote her own Mandarin ballad "No Regrets" (執迷不悔) in 1993, which led many people to praise her not just as a talented singer but as a gifted songwriter as well; in February, the similarly titled album was released and became an instant best-seller. Although the songs were mostly more soft contemporary arrangments, like most of what was being traditionally released in Hong Kong, it also had a few dance songs and two versions of the title track: one in Mandarin and the other in Cantonese, with new lyrics by Chen Shao Qi (the Mandarin version is by far the more popular one).

Since then, she has completely shed any R&B influence and has moved on to produce works of considerable originality and a more alternative flavor, epitomized in her next album 100,000 Whys (released in September 1993). Before this album was released, a few of its tracks were mainstream enough to air in radio transmissions among listeners. Therefore, it became another instant best-seller in the same year with No Regrets and people's recognition of her first introduction to the alternative rock from the West.

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Actors - Faye Wong

Early years

Rise to fame

Back to Hong Kong

Changing her style

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