Faye Wong was born on the 8 August 1969 in Beijing. Since childhood, she was found to be gifted with great talent in singing. At the age of 16, Faye Wong made a couple of covered-versions of pop songs of other artists including those of by then the most popular singer in the whole Chinese-speaking World, Teresa Deng Li Jun. Believe it or not, Faye also made a covered version of the English hits “Hey, Mr. Postman” and “Top of the World” by the Carpenters. These songs were compiled as cassette type for sale. No official selling record could be traced.
Faye Wong moved to Hong Kong from Beijing by the year 1987. She participated in some singing lessons and was discovered by senior management of Cinepoly, a local record Company in Hong Kong. Cinepoly gave Faye further training in singing and believed that she would be the next top female singer in Hong Kong. For marketing reasons, Cinepoly asked Faye Wong to use the name Wong Jing Man in her singing career. They also gave her a commonly used English name in Hong Kong in the 1980s: Shirley.
Faye Wong’s first appearance to the Hong Kong audience was in the Carlsberg Music Contest (for songwriting) 1989. While the song Faye performed on that night was awarded the prize of second runner-up in the competition, her beautiful voice attracted the attention of thousands of people. Faye Wong’s first Cantonese album “Wong Jing Wen” / 《王靖雯》was released in that same year. The selling record of this album was not bad for a new artist but the music style simply followed the mainstream Canton-pop music with nothing special.
The album producer suggested that Faye Wong should sing soul/pop music in her second Cantonese album “Everything” which was released in early 1990. But, it was too harsh to the general music fans and the album did not sell well. Later that year, Faye Wong released her third Cantonese album “You are the only one” which was still a soul/pop album with a touch of R&B music. The critics loved the album and some attention was received from the public. Nonetheless, Faye Wong disappeared from the music industry in Hong Kong after a wonderful performance in a music TV show. It was all beyond Faye’s control that her record contract with Cinepoly was not renewed by that time.
Interestingly, after Faye left, the air-play of her singles stayed very high thanks to the DJs of Commercial Radio Hong Kong. They seemed not being able to find better choices to play during year 1991/92. Cinepoly noted Faye’s popularity and decided to invite her back to Hong Kong to resume her singing career. Faye made a stunning come-back with her fourth Cantonese album 《Coming Home》in late 1992. The DJs and fans just loved another of Faye’s wonderful performance of soul/pop music in this album. The album became a big hit and was sold very well.
Faye then released two more Cantonese albums in 1993, namely “No Regrets” /《執迷不悔》 and “100,000 Why” /《十萬個為什麼》. “No Regrets” was again embedded with soul music but also some love songs written by Taiwanese songwriters. Faye changed her music style to Pop/Rock in “100,000 Why” for a fuller music experience. Both albums were sold very well but “100,000 Why” was highly rated by the critics. Starting from this year, love songs began to take a lead role in Faye’s music career and they were normally distinguished as Faye-ballads from the conventional Canton-pop. For no reasons, the name Faye Wong was even more popular than the converted name Wong Jing Wen during that period. So, Cinepoly switched the name back. The name of Faye Wong virtually became a trade-mark connoting advance, free-style and creativity.
The year 1994 was a busy year for Faye Wong. She all together released two Cantonese albums and two Mandarin albums. To start with, she released her first Mandarin album “ Mystery”/《迷》as her debut to the Taiwanese market. The album contained many Mandarin versions of her Cantonese singles. In that summer, she released the Cantonese album “Random Thoughts” /《胡思亂想》, in which she made a few covered-versioned songs of the British groups like the Cranberries and Cocteau Twins. Then, she released another Mandarin album “Sky”/《天空》which included a lot of Faye-ballads and a few Faye-alternative singles. She then held her first concert in Hong Kong in December. After finishing the concert, she simply disappeared out of nowhere. She did not even care that Cinepoly had just released of her eighth Cantonese album “Pleasing Oneself”/《討好自己》which had incorporated two songs composed by herself. May be she was so tired and needed a quiet place to hide away. Anyway, Faye by then was crowned as the first Tian-Hou(Diva) of Asia and all of the above four albums were big sellers. A point to note, Dou Wei and Zhang Ya Dong started to appear in the production of Faye’s album in this year. These two musicians had great influence on Faye’s music.
Cinepoly and Faye’s agent could not get in touch with Faye for most of the time in 1995. Faye again missed most of the promotion activities arranged by the record company for her third Mandarin album “The (Non)-decadent Sound of Faye” /《菲靡靡之音》。 This was a tribute album to Faye’s favorite singer, Teresa Deng Li Jun, who passed away early that year. Faye made 13 covered-versions of Deng’s songs in her own alternative style. In the autumn of 1995, Faye Wong was finally located by the Hong Kong paparazzi. Faye Wong, by then already a little rich woman, was found to be living a simple life with her boyfriend, Dou Wei, in a poor little hut in Beijing. The public in Hong Kong was just shocked by Faye’s crush for Dou Wei. Anyway, Faye then returned to Hong Kong to do a few promotions for her ninth and last Cantonese album “DIDAR” which was considered as her best Cantonese album ever. “DIDAR” was a simple but creative pop album compiling both of Faye’s alternative and ballad hits. Dou Wei, Zhang Ya Dong and Hong Kong musicians like C.Y.Kong, Adrian Chan and Alex San played an important role in the overall success of the album. Faye Wong asked her favorite lyric writer, Lin Xi, to write up the lyrics of all the nine Cantonese singles compiled in “DIDAR”.
Faye released her fourth Mandarin album “Restless”/《浮躁》in 1996. Supposedly, there should be one more Cantonese album to be released in that year. But, due to marketing reasons, Cinepoly cut that album into pieces and released the singles thereof in EP format over a long period of time. Back to “Restless”, it was a total experimental album of Faye Wong who composed most of the Faye-alternative singles included therein. They were mainly produced/arranged by Dou Wei and Zhang Ya Dong. Faye also invited Cocteau Twins to composed/produced two singles for her in that album. The album was considered to be Faye’s classic album by most Fayenatics(Faye Music Followers or Hard-core Faye Fans) but unfortunately it made the worst selling record of all Faye’s Mandarin albums.
In 1997, Faye Wong decided not to renew her contract with Cinepoly. She signed a new contract with EMI for 55 songs and released her fifth Mandarin album “Faye Wong 97” / 《王菲97》. Singles with heavy Zhang Ya Dong/Faye Wong style and a few love songs were compiled in this album. The album was said to be Faye’s a little setback in terms of music creativity. Well, may be everyone was expecting too much and wanting to see what Faye would do next after her rebellious “Restless”. Nonetheless, the single “Happy be You, Happy am I” 《你快樂所以我快樂》 extracted from this album was considered as one of Faye’s greatest single all-time. The song was written by Zhang Ya Dong and lyrics by Lin Xi. It was believed to be a song that a mother would sing to her daughter. By this time, Faye Wong was already the mother of 9-month old child and married to Dou Wei. Her marriage did not seem to affect her popularity.
Faye Wong released her six Mandarin album “Scenic Tour” /《唱遊》 in 1998. She wrote a number of songs which were arranged/produced by Zhang Ya Dong and Dou Wei. The three of them really worked out as a good team and produced music of a class of their own. Somehow, Faye Wong divorced Dou Wei after this album was released. Anyway, the Fayenatics was crazy for the continuation of quality Faye-alternative music as it first sparked off in “Restless”. “Scenic Tour” was considered as another of Faye’s classic album which made another strong selling record in the whole Asia Pacific region. Faye also expanded her market to Japan with “Scenic Tour”.
In 1999, although Zhang Ya Dong was involved in the album “Only Love Strangers”《只愛陌生人 》, he was placed in some rather side tracks as the background. The producer acknowledged that Faye might be too busy with her personal affairs and had little time for song writing. He therefore invited the Hong Kong musicians like C.Y.Kong and Adrian Chan to produce singles with their own style for Faye Wong. Of course, a few love songs were also compiled for marketing reasons. In this album, Faye Wong kind of returned to pop/rock which was missed by the Fayenatics and non-Fayenatics for quite a while.
The album “Fable” /《寓言》 was released in the year 2000. It consisted of two parts, namely the “alternative part” produced by Faye Wong/Zhang Ya Dong and the “pop part” taken care by her Hong Kong musicians. The critics loved the alternative part. They were too glad to see that Faye Wong was back on track to create good music and they expected more from her. On the other hand, the ordinary fans loved the pop part because they were so easy listening and in the case of Faye, simplicity sometimes made her beautiful voice the most irresistible.
In 2001, Faye Wong released her ninth Mandarin album and final album under EMI. The album was titled “Faye Wong” again and the Fayenatics always referred this album as “Faye Wong 2001” /《王菲01》. Zhang Ya Dong and the Hong Kong musicians were replaced by musicians from other parts of Asia in the production of this album. It was supposed to be a chance for Faye Wong to experiment further in music via working with these musicians. Somehow, the magic did not really work out this time. The rock element was just too strong in this album and something was missing there. Some Fayenatics really wished the return of Zhang Ya Dong.
Faye Wong’s record contract with EMI ended in 2001. From 1997 to 2001, Faye released altogether 11 Cantonese singles with EMI. They were all included as bonus tracks in Faye’s Mandarin albums. Nearly all of them became hit singles in Hong Kong. During that period, Faye Wong also released two singles in Japan, namely Eyes On Me in English and Separate Ways in Japanese. She also co-released with Lama Thubten Zopo Rinboche an album which compiled Buddhism songs for charity purpose in 2001.
Faye Wong signed a new record contract with Sony in 2002 but she only released her tenth Mandarin album “Jiang Ai” /《將愛》one year later. The album compiled 10 Mandarin singles and three Cantonese tracks. Zhang Ya Dong came back to co-produce this album with Faye. The two of them composed most of the songs in this album. The Fayenatics discovered that Faye’s music, though still alternative, were more easy listening than her previous ones. But, what they did not expect was “Jiang Ai” might be Faye Wong’s last album.
Faye Wong married again in 2005 to actor, Li Ya Peng. She gave birth to a second child in 2006. It was unfortunate that this girl baby was borne with facial deformities. Faye Wong and Li Ya Peng bravely coped with the situation and took good care of their child. The couple also set up a charity foundation fund (http://www.crcf.org.cn) to help children with this kind of problem. The song “Smiling Angel” /《愛笑的天使》was dedicated to this fund by Faye Wong. (We hope that it is not her last song.)
As a final remark, Faye Wong released all together 9 Cantonese and 10 Mandarin albums up to date. Alvin Leong was the album producer of all these albums except “Faye Wong 01” which was produced by Faye Wong and Leong Qiao Bo and “Jiang Ai” which was produced by Faye Wong and Zhang Ya Dong.
