Faye Wong
Faye Wong, or Wong Fei (Chinese: 王菲; pinyin: Wáng Fēi) (born August 8, 1969 in Beijing, now a Hong Kong citizen) is an extremely popular singer in mainland China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore and Malaysia, also well-known in Japan and to some extent in the West. First known as a sweet-voiced singer, she morphed into an "enfant terrible," and now stands as one of the few "divas" in the Asian music scene.
She is believed by critics and fans alike to be one of the most commercially and artistically distinguished singers in Chinese pop music history, with a following so large and devoted that media in Hong Kong, Taiwan and mainland China often place the title "天后" (diva or goddess) before her name while Japanese fans call her "Diva of Asia." A shy, silent, unsocial and somewhat controversial icy queen, she is one of the very few people fervently idolized on both sides of the Taiwan straits. Openly admired by singers, acters and politicians (such as Ma Ying-jeou, mayor of Taipei and newly-elected leader of the KMT), she is also arguably the most loved and imitated gay icon all over the Chinese-speaking world. She has acted in several films, most memorably in Wong Kar-wai's Chungking Express, a role that garnered international acclaim and nabbed the award for "Best Actress" at the 1994 Stockholm Film Festival.
Early years
Born in Beijing, People's Republic of China, she was originally named 夏琳 (Xià Lín) adopting her mother's maiden name, because the Wang 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 Wang Fei (王菲). She inherited the 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 all-time idol.
In 1987, she moved with her family to Hong Kong and began her musical career in the late 1980s. She signed a contract with Cinepoly and released three albums under the stage name Shirley Wong (王靖雯, py Wáng Jìngwén). Containing a large number of cover songs sung by American and Japanese singers, these bland albums attracted lukewarm response, which prompted her to make a short trip to New York for vocal studies in 1991.
Rise to Fame
Back to Hong Kong
She burst onto the Hong Kong music scene the next year with the album Coming Home, which incorporated R&B influences and was a drastic change in musical direction from the more traditional Cantopop fare of her earlier albums. In this album, she covered a song Fragile Woman originally sung by the Japanese music diva Nakashima Miyuki. Covered by other singers into Chinese languages before, this song nonetheless swept over Hong Kong and almost singlehandedly uplifted her to be one of the most wanted singers.
Since then, she has shed the R&B influence and had moved on to produce works of considerable originality and a more alternative flavor, epitomed in the next two albums No Regrets and 10,0000 Whys in 1993. In 1994, she changed her stage name back to her original name "Wong Fei" (王菲) for all subsequent releases in the Cantonese Hong Kong, one year later on the Mandarin market.
This time saw her extensively absorbing alternative music styles from the West. The Scottish ambient/ethereal group Cocteau Twins's influence on her is clearly shown in her next two Cantonese albums Random Thoughs and Ingratiate Myself. She learned unique vocal skills from Dolores O'Riordan of the Irish band The Cranberries, covering their "Dreams" in Chungking Express, and other songs in Chinese by other western artists such as Tori Amos and The Sundays.
Mandarin market
Besides two Cantonese albums in 1994, Wong released another two in Mandarin in Taiwan, Lost and Sky. The runaway hit I'm Willing (我願意) became her trademark song throughout the Chinese-speaking world for years to come. Deemed as one of the greastest Chinese songs in late 20th century, it has been covered by many other Chinese singers.
While her music in Hong Kong had gone remarkably away from the mainstream, these two Mandarin albums, as her first attempt to enter the Taiwan (and later the mainland) market, were nonetheless the warmest and most traditional during her entire career and are specially cherished by her old fans. Critics generally agree that had Yang Minghuang, the producer of these albums, not been killed later in a car accident, though Faye Wong would still have climbed to the top, her music style would have been completely different than it turned out to be, that is to say: exquisite and romantic as opposed to exotic, sharply distinctive and peculiarly artistic.
Four best-selling albums both in the Cantonese and Mandarin-speaking regions, a record-breaking series of 18 consecutive concerts in Hong Kong and a widely acclaimed film (Chungking Express) all in 1994: these achievements together made her the single most eminent female Hong Kong singer at that time. However, as a northern girl with an upbringing at odds with the way of life in Hong Kong, her distaste for the profit-oriented entertainment industry became more and more apparent. Meanwhile, she was frequently in touch with the rock circle back in Beijing. Due to her somewhat reticent and nonchalant attitude, some began to call her as a defiant and arrogant superstar.
Alternative experiments
In 1995, she released her last-to-date Cantonese album Di-Dar which mixes various feelings of hollowness, languor, apathy and desperation with a touch of Indian and Middle Eastern flavor. Having composed several songs in previous albums expressing a desire to release herself, she was now finally fed up with the hypocritical industry. Music videos show her doing all kinds of meaningless things, playing and dancing by herself, apparently bored to death. Nevertheless, this album was a success, partly because it was so different from the mainstream Cantopop music and, ironically, a couple of very traditional romantic songs that topped the charts.
1996 saw the release of what many would consider her boldest and most artistically coherent effort to date, Restless. Faye was not at all satisfied with producing albums that the company demanded on her, so this Mandarin album was the result of her own will. This was risky for the relatively conservative Chinese pop music market, Cantonese and Mandarin alike, where the majority of audience are interested only in sweet love songs. But now standing at the peak of the pyramid, she could afford it. The album contains mainly her own compositions, yet still with an aesthetic inspired by Cocteau Twins, who also contributed 2 of their songs for the album. Since Faye previously covered them in 1994, they had established a remote working relationship, laying down vocals for a track on the Asian version of the group's 1995 album, Milk And Kisses. Simon Raymonde & Robin Guthrie further contributed 2 other compositions, but only one of them showed up on her 1997 self-titled follow-up.
Critics loved and are still loving this impatience-themed album that presents a bright picture of joy, carefreeness, anxiety, fear and decandence under a sunny autumn sky. A buddhist herself, Faye weaves in teachings of transience and disengagement that can also be found in her previous and later albums. Although this is Faye's favorite, response from Hong Kong and Taiwan was less than desirable. Many fans that loved her previous two Mandarin albums turned their back on Restless which they considered were out of line and too self-absorbing. However, hardcore fans worship it and use this to distinguish who is a "real" "faye-natic." Having learned a lesson from this, Faye haven't released another fully artistic album ever since. After the release, Faye became the second Chinese artist (after Gong Li) and the first Chinese singer to be on the cover of TIME.
Memorizing Teresa Teng
The Decadent Sounds of Faye in 1995 was a covers album containing unique renditions of songs originally done by her idol Teresa Teng, one of the most revered Chinese singers extremely popular in Japan, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Southeast Asia and later mainland China, who died shortly before its release. The title of this album is a pun: during the Cultural Revolution, Teng's songs were condemned as "decadent sounds (靡靡之音)" by the communists. The album title is literally translated as Faye Decadent Sounds (菲靡靡之音) where the character "菲" (Faye) has the same pronunciation as "非" (no/not). Decadent Sounds sold quite well despite initial negative criticism. It has come to be recognised as a classic among her fans and is held as an example of imaginative covering by recent critics.
Marriage
While most of her earlier albums prior to 1996 were sung in Cantonese, Wong has almost consistently sung in Mandarin ever since. Having gone through a stage of experimentation, Faye has stated that she now wishes to produce "music that I like. I do not care if others don't, though I would be delighted if they do".
Wong has a daughter named Dou Jingtong (竇靖童) born on January 3, 1997 with ex-husband and musical partner Dou Wei (竇唯, py Dòu Wéi), a prominent musician in his own right. The baby's voice appears on the title track of the album Only Love Strangers released in 1999, as well as in the song "Child" (童, py Tóng) on the album Song Journey (唱遊, py Chàngyóu).
EMI period
Her claim to fame in the Western world is the title song "Eyes on Me" for the video game Final Fantasy VIII, for which she was reportedly paid one million dollars. She went on to do commercials for Pepsi in the 2000s, and continues to put out best-selling albums.
Sony period
Faye Wong was named in the Guinness World Records as the best-selling Canto-pop female in March,2000 with an estimated 9.7 millions of copies sold and such estimate did not include the album,王菲 Faye Wong, which was released in 2001 and there is no known total sales of this album available; and the latest album, 將愛 To Love, which was released in 2003 with copies sold for more than a million copies on both sides of the Taiwan Straits. The total sales that the Guiness Record presented the total sales of Wong's albums are restricted to the total sales of albums before March, 2000.
Selected Discography
The Chinese titles are official; there are no official English titles (other translations are possible). However, some albums like Di-Dar and Coming Home have only English titles.
- 將愛 To Love (2003)
- 王菲 Faye Wong (2001)
- 寓言 Fable (2000)
- 只愛陌生人 Only Love Strangers (1999)
- 唱游 Song Journey (1998)
- 王菲 Faye Wong (1997)
- 浮躁 Restless (1996)
- 菲靡靡之音 The Decadent Sounds of Faye Wong (1995)
- Di-Dar (1995)
- 一人分飾兩角 One Person, Two Roles (1995 EP)
- 討好自己 Ingratiate Myself (1994)
- 胡思亂想 Random Thoughts (1994)
- 天空 Sky (1994)
- 迷 Mystery (1994)
- 十萬個為甚麼 Hundred Thousand Whys (1993)
- 執迷不悔 No Regrets (1993)
- Coming Home (1992)
- You're the Only One (1990)
- Everything (1990)
- 王靖雯 Shirley Wong (1989)
Filmography
Recently, she put in an acclaimed turn as a robot experiencing its first emotions in Wong Kar-wai's art-house success, 2046.
- 2046 (2004), directed by Wong Kar-wai
- Leaving Me, Loving You (2004)
- Chinese Odyssey 2002 (2002)
- Okinawa Rendez-vous (2000)
- Chungking Express (1995) directed by Wong Kar-wai
- Beyond's Diary (1991)