Born on August 8th, 1969, in Beijing, People's Republic of China, little Xia Lin (夏琳) had a particularly rough time in her early years. With a singing mother and business-oriented father, Lin never quite developed a strong bond with her parents. She did, however, develope a love for her god-mother who she treated as her own mother. This relationship filled a deep void in Lin, but would be severed when the god-mother had a child of her own. The void was soon opened again, but Lin found ways to keep herself entertained on her own.
At the age of 15, Lin's name was officially changed to Wong Fei (王菲). By taking on her father's name of Wong, Fei was proudly displaying the family name that had once been persecuted during the Cultural Revolution. Also at this time, Faye was studious in school, but found time for love with a classmate whom she considers her first true love. After her high school days had ended, Fei was accepted to a university in Whampoa, Hong Kong where she studied modeling. However, she soon lost interest, and moved on to music. Her father, an avid fan of his daughter's voice, introduced Fei to Di An Tsong, a singing teacher. Carting a beautiful, yet oddly different, voice, Fei was a beloved student by her teachers, and was very involved in her schooling. This what just enough to give Fei a taste of the music industry, and she knew she wanted more.
At 19, Fei signed a contract with the Cinepoly record company to release several albums under the stage name Shirely Wong (王靖雯: Wang Jìngwen). These albums were mainly filled with covers of previous Chinese hits, and received little attention. With her budding career in jeopardy already, Fei decided to take a break from releasing records, and headed to New York to receive professional vocal training in 1991. During the year she took off, Cinepoly released several compilation CDs of "Shirley Wong" music, much to the delight of her fans.