Faye Wong is a Chinese-Hong Kong singer-songwriter and actress. Early in her career she briefly used the stage name Shirley Wong (王靖雯). Born in Beijing, she moved to Hong Kong at the age of 18. She debuted with the Cantonese album Shirley Wong in 1989 and came to public attention by combining alternative music with mainstream Chinese pop. Since 1994, she has recorded mostly in her native Mandarin.

Faye Wong was born at Peking Union Medical College Hospital in Dongcheng District, Beijing in the midst of the Cultural Revolution. Her father is Wang Youlin (王佑林), a mining engineer and second son of Wang Zhaomin aka Wang Molin (王兆民; 王墨林) (1901-1985), member of the Legislative Yuan of the Republic of China. Wang Youlin was parentally betrothed to Li Min (李珉), sister of Taiwanese writer Li Ao, but when Wang Zhaomin left for Taiwan by the Communist takeover, Wang Youlin, then a left-leaning college student, stayed in the Mainland and later wed Xia Guiying (夏桂影), a revolutionary music soprano with China Coal Mine Art Troupe, who would be Wong's mother. Wong has an elder brother named Wang Yi (王弋).