Talk:Faye Wong/Archive 01

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This page is Archive number 1 from Talk:Faye Wong

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Claim to fame in the west

Is she really better known in the west for a video game theme song (admittedly FF) than for Chungking Express? I think we should at least change that line to "her best known song is the west is..." Nateji77 00:16, 13 May 2005 (UTC)

Unfortunately, as much as I don't listen to it much anymore, it is one of her most popular international songs. This song in particular is especially popular amongst non-Asians. The majority of them just know Faye for this song only. A shame really, but unfortunately it definitely has some truth behind it. Jason Gervais 00:27, 06 May 2006 (UTC)

stupid question

just curious if anyone can tell me... does Faye know Japanese??? got a music but am not sure if she sang it. thx!

No she doesn't, despite the fact that she starred in one Japanese TV show and recorded two studio tracks in Japanese, Seperate Ways for the show and later Valentine's Radio to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the Japanese diva Yumi Matsutoya's music career.--Wooddoo-eng 18:45, 30 July 2005 (UTC)
She also recorded a version of "Chanel" in Japanese.Boarry 06:00, 27 March 2006 (UTC)
There is another song she did in Japanese called "Destiny", which is featured on a compilation disc called "Enchanting Kaler". It's a disc (of three in total) that feature music from her teenager years before the release of her first official album "Shirley Wong". Jason Gervais 12:08, 05 May 2006 (UTC)

Maybe famous in Mandarin market before 1994

Before Mystery and Sky gained more of her popularity in 1994, was she famous in the Mandarin market like mainland China and Taiwan for writing a few Mandarin songs entitled "No Regrets" and "Tempted Heart" or something else that made her well-known in those areas way before 1994?--Gh87 01:24, 11 December 2005 (UTC)

It's probably the song "Fragile Woman" (also translated as "Easily Hurt Woman") you're talking about. Released on her Coming Home album. Jason Gervais 00:23, 06 May 2006 (UTC)

No, slight correction here. She started off her career in Hong Kong, singing mainly cover versions such as 'Fragile woman' which were immensely popular and established herself as a top female singer. However, it was the release Mystery and Sky that shot her to fame in Asia Pacific.

Regards of her early years

I read the Early Years section, and it seems that it needed some changes for that section by questions and/or comments based on facts and opinions shown everywhere:

  1. She had a short-time modeling career before her contract with Cinepoly. How did she lose interest in this course?
  2. She had a first date in her teenage years, which the Chinese rule forbade children from talking about love. I don't know enough about their relationship, including the time they broke up.
  3. The article said her first three Cantonese albums did "little attention". From what I've heard, they sold well and then led her to fame before her tour in New York and her album Coming Home, which made her more famous than before. Moreover, these albums contained tracks that were radio hits.
  4. Wait a minute! Her grandfather was the congressman in Taiwan? If so, how?
  5. The Wong family prosecuted during the Cultural Revolution, are they related to Faye? If so, how?
  6. Her father was a mining engineer.
  7. From what I've heard, her parents were very hard-workers, leaving her raised more likely by her neighbor. I don't know how to call it, but I think the relationship between Faye and her neighbor seemed as if they're daughter and parent.
  8. After the success of her first three Cantonese albums, she decided not to fit in the so-called "star formula" that was well-used in Hong Kong entertainment circle. From what I heard, she went to New York City WITHOUT telling anyone (maybe except a few, but NOT EVEN the press). True that it was for vocal studies, but also she wanted to explore herself by things, such as hanging around the streets, sampling the music, communication with others, etc. Meanwhile, she lived with her aunt in NYC for a short time.
What else do you know more about her early years?--Gh87 20:32, 25 December 2005 (UTC)

She recorded three albums before the album "Shirley Wong". The rough translations of these albums are, "Where Does the Wind Come From?", "Faye Wong Collection", and "The Longing For Home. All of which were recorded within the years of 1985-1989. I don't know exact dates as to when they were recorded, but it was definitely before her first studio album. I noticed that isn't listed anywhere on Wikipedia, about these three albums. Jason Gervais 14:54, 05 May 2006 (UTC)

I have an album issued in 2004 as "Faye Wong Collector's Album" (printed only in Mandarin) which claims to be a re-issue of her first album made when she was 16. Info here, again in Mandarin: [1] and [2]. Google seems to do a better job than babelfish.altavista at translating the track names; Babelfish translates Wong Fei as "King Phillipines"! Fayenatic london 22:06, 28 September 2006 (UTC)

It's not a re-release of her FIRST teenage album, but her SECOND teenage album. Some great pals who are good at translating things managed to scoop together what seems like a natural and accurate translation of the tracklist:

  • 01-Girl
  • 02-Bygones
  • 03-Walking Naturally
  • 04-I Want You to Know
  • 05-Romance Under the Moonlight
  • 06-Walls of the Heart
  • 07-I'll Let You Guess
  • 08-Childhood of Dreams
  • 09-The Two of Us
  • 10-You By My Side
  • 11-Please Don't Speak
  • 12-Except You
  • 13-Say the Word
  • 14-The Last Confession
  • 15-Goodbye, Friend

Hope that helps. I have translations of the other two teenage albums, if you're interested. Jason Gervais 20:20, 28 September 2006 (UTC)

Is it "just" me, or "are" there too many "quotation" marks in "this" passage? Not "that" I think it's implying "anything", but "it's" really annoying.

It's fine. These quotation marks are there to point out songs so it doesn't get lost in a sentence. Jason Gervais 2005 (UTC)

gay icon?

Are there sources to support this quote, "Not only openly admired by well-known celebrities around the world, she was also labeled as the gay icon among the gay community.". I had no idea she was gay?

First and foremost, she is not gay. She is happily married to Chinese actor, Li Ya Peng. Who is a man, for your information. She's also been married to Dou Wei, dated Nicholas Tse, and also dated someone before she was famous. All of whom were men. So, it's clear she is not gay. During the years of 1994-1995, she sported a haircut that many thought that she was gay. She had a boys haircut, sort of. I just like to think of it as really short hair, if you ask me. You can see this haircut in many pictures, or you can just go watch the film Chungking Express and you'll see. Because of that, and also her pixie (meaning very girly, playful, crazy, etc.) kind of personality, many gay people started to like her. There is legit sources which mention it, but I believe they are magazines or statistics that have this information. I'll say this, it's definitely not the first time I've seen her labeled as a gay icon. Jason Gervais 09:36, 22 May 2006 (UTC)

Yes, you can expect most Chinese gays aged 30 or below in the Asia region to at least have some idolation towards her. Its mainly due to her good fashion sense, quietly confident character and willingness to be different.

My first thought reading it was like, "She's gay?!" Someone should reword it to "gay fashion icon" instead of "gay icon" which usually denotes the icon being gay herself/himself. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 70.30.59.2 (talk • contribs) .
I can understand the first thought mentioned here, but the expression gay icon is explained on its own page in Wikipedia. This mentions various characteristics that may lead to a person being adopted as a gay icon. To quote from that page, Faye certainly meets the descriptions of "female musical stars, particularly those with powerful, emotive voices..." and "androgynous pop artists". At any rate she appeared androgynous in the film Chungking Express. So, there's no need to change the wording to "gay fashion icon." Fayenatic london
Evidence here: [3] - 400KB download, retrieved 20 April 2007. University of Technology Sydney News, 8-21 October 2001, p4 Report by Senior Lecturer in the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, Dr Tony Mitchell, who lectures in Hong Kong cinema, states: "In her early 30s, Faye Wong has been compared to Madonna and is as popular in mainland China and Taiwan, where she is a gay icon, as she is in Hong Kong. Like most Cantopop singers, she looks like a model and wears vampy clothes on stage."

her personal favorite song

In the trivia section it states that her personal favorite song is "Kisses In The Wind", featured on her Coming Home album. However I believe this is untrue, because I've read interviews on wongfei.org where she states that it is "Angel". I don't have the source at hand but will try to find it as time permits.--Lasersharp 08:37, 26 June 2006 (UTC)

That statement struck me as very unlikely too. I suggest it should be deleted unless a source can be given. Fayenatic london 21:44, 24 September 2006 (UTC)
I will remove this from the article for now unless I'm (or anyone else) positive it's correct. Jason Gervais 21:38, 24 September 2006 (UTC)
Well, here is a source after all (in Mandarin, but the song title is English anyway): http://lib.verycd.com/2004/12/08/0000029624.html
I'll leave it to Jason to reinstate the point. Fayenatic london 22:46, 27 September 2006 (UTC)
I have a compilation from her teenage years called Enchanting Kaler which lists "Kisses in the Wind" as her favorite song. I wasn't sure of the translation of "喜爱歌曲" in the booklet, but right beside it said "Kisses in the Wind". So I figured "喜爱歌曲" meant favorite song and apparently I was correct! I'll re-add this to the article now. Jason Gervais 10:19, 28 September 2006 (UTC)

eyeglass prescription?

I was reading the last Other section in the article. It says "Her eyeglasses prescription is 400 degrees." -- notwithstanding that I don't think this is very relevant... how on Earth can a prescription be 400 degrees? It doesn't make mathematical sense, since angles wrap around from 360 degrees back to 0. I assume the person meant 40 degrees and it's a typo?

400° prescription is a Chinglish way to say her lens prescription is spherical -4.00 diopter correction.  :-) Anyone one who has astigmatism also knows that the eyeglass prescription has an cylindrical axis orientation that is expressed in degrees that cannot exceed 360° in a full circle. The reference to 400 degree is just an Chinglish translation of 400 whatever unit that is corresponding to the -4.00 diopter in the prescription. Kowloonese 01:49, 14 July 2006 (UTC)

Major concert series

I suggest adding a short section listing Faye's major concert series:

  • Faye Wong Live In Concert 1994/95: 18 concerts at Hong Kong Coliseum, 22 Dec 1994 - 8 Jan 95.
  • Faye Wong Scenic Tour 1998/99:
7 concerts in China and one in Japan,
17 concerts at Hong Kong Coliseum, 24 Dec 1998 - 9 Jan 99
then 5 more in Singapore, USA & Japan.
  • "Faye Live - No Faye No Live!" Tour 2003/04: 8 concerts at Hong Kong Coliseum, 20-27 Dec 2003

Source & full list of concerts: "Live" page at http://fayewong.altervista.org/english/index.htm.
All were issued on double albums. The first was televised, the last is available on DVD; what about the others?
Good idea? Any suggestions on formatting? Fayenatic london 11:41, 14 October 2006 (UTC)

good idea, we can also put special songs she sang in particular concerts, for example her covers of other artists Lasersharp 05:56, 17 October 2006 (UTC)
we can also add special characteristics of Faye's concerts such as very little talking, no guests, no dancers, no encores, always ending with "Mortal World" (after that song came out), and the deep bow (~90 degrees) at the end Lasersharp 06:01, 17 October 2006 (UTC)
I think the songs that were not on Faye's studio albums were as follows:
1994: (i) One Thousand Words, Ten Thousand Phrases (Teresa Teng)
1998: (i) Bohemian rhapsody (Queen. Hunh... must avoid making POV comments about this cover... "very very frighting" indeed!) (ii) Auld Lang Syne.
2003: (i) Heart of Glass (Blondie). (ii) The look of love (Bacharach).
Would it be best to refrain, because of NPOV, from any comments about bizarre fashions and not-always-attractive makeup? Fayenatic london 23:18, 18 October 2006 (UTC)
I think I have an idea for you to find sources. Not only you find them by paper and computer, you also must find sound clips of songs. I'm not saying that we must insert sound clips into this article, but I'm telling you to take some samples and verify these songs she sang, especially in concerts. Find these samples online or someplace else. --Gh87 06:50, 19 October 2006 (UTC)
Sorry Gh87, I'm not sure what you are getting at. I was just trying to eliminate from the published tracklists, i.e. the concert CD tracklists, the songs that Faye had already sung on studio albums. I included three more at first that in fact had been on studio albums, so I've removed them from the list above.
I think the discographies are sufficient sources to write a factual article. If I had all the songs to listen to (and I do have most of them), that would mainly enable me to add "Point Of View" comments, but those do not belong on Wikipedia anyway, see WP:NPOV. Fayenatic london 22:00, 19 October 2006 (UTC)
I think you're confused by my misleading passage. By rephrasing my words, instead of inserting sound clips into articles like this one, how about try to find samples online anywhere, listen to them, and verify whether her tributes in singing people's songs exist without inserting samples into articles?
Oh, and also, why not inserting a list of her concerts into Faye Wong discography? --Gh87 00:40, 20 October 2006 (UTC)
Basically find soundclips online to make sure she sang the songs you'd like to include. Like Heart of Glass we can verify she sang since it's on her most recent concert CD. So the songs that weren't released officially either on CD/DVD/VCD/etc. should be checked to see if she actually sang them. The clips should not be included in the article though, since I believe it might violate some sort of thing around here. Eh, not sure how we could verify these without including links for reference to people who simply don't believe she did so and so song. --Jason Gervais 11:10, 20 October 2006 (UTC)
Aha, thanks for that, Gh and Jason, I get the idea now. Let's keep our antennae in the air for info about extra songs that weren't on the CDs. I had thought that if Faye sang special songs that weren't on her studio albums, the record company would definitely include them all on the CD of the concert because it would be a selling point. Then again, the song list would have changed a bit during a long tour like 1998. So, prove me wrong! Fayenatic london 20:33, 20 October 2006 (UTC)
Some of her concert covers can be found on Youtube, would this be a valid source?. Two covers I think we missed:
1994: I Will Marry You Tomorrow Emil Chow
2003: Those Flowers Pu Shu (for concerts in China only, I think) Lasersharp 01:25, 22 October 2006 (UTC)
Thanks, Lasersharp, I should have picked up Emil Chow's song from the discography notes on Josh's famous website.
There's a privately-taken video on youtube of Faye singing Ph Shu's "Those Flowers" at a concert here. I guess I can ask the owner which concert it was.
For now I'm proposing to include in the table just a short list based on the track lists of the concert CDs. Anyone can change it later of course. Fayenatic london 22:36, 22 October 2006 (UTC)
Is it okay to post links to these clips though? Because if we can't post them and if it violates rules on Wikipedia, what is the point to include them? How would we work around this though, if it's not allowed? What if someone asks about a particular song and wants it to be verified? Post a link to the clip for them? Jason Gervais 11:12, 23 October 2006 (UTC)
I think the latter is a good idea. If anyone has further comments on this, let's pick this up in the discussion higher up this page on References under "Cleanup Suggestions". Thanks everyone for your contributions on concerts. Fayenatic london 20:55, 28 October 2006 (UTC)

Trivia

Here's a copy of the Trivia section as at 14 March 2007, before it gets dispersed or deleted from the article.

Name She has performed under many different stage names:

  • Miss Charm (One of her stage names before 1989)

Her name was changed to 王靖雯 early in her career:

  • Shirley Wong (English name)
  • Wong Ching-Man (This is the Cantonese pronunciation of her Chinese name)
  • Jing-Man Wong (Another way of spelling her Chinese name in Cantonese pronunciation)
  • Jingwen Wang (This is the Mandarin pronunciation of her Chinese name)
  • Jing-Wen Wang (Another way of spelling her Chinese name in Mandarin pronunciation)

Her name was changed back to 王菲 later in her career:

  • Faye Wong (English name with Cantonese pronunciation last name)
  • Faye Wang (English name with Mandarin pronunciation last name)
  • Wong Fei (This is the Cantonese pronunciation of her Chinese name)
  • Wang Fei (This is the Mandarin pronunciation of her Chinese name)
  • Wong Faye (Another way of saying Faye Wong)

Other Languages

  • Wang Bi (Korean form of Faye Wong)
  • Vương Phi (Vietnamese form of Faye Wong)

Other

References

  1. ^ VeryCD.com (in Chinese).
  2. ^ a b Josh's Faye Wong Biography Page
  3. ^ This is also stated in the sleeve notes of the 2003 re-issue of her 1985 album, Enchanting Kaler. However, in her 1998 interview on CNN, she declined to name one favourite song, saying that there were several that she liked.
  4. ^ Xiaobao Chen, ex-Universal Records Hong Kong CEO (in Chinese), 前環球總裁披露王菲舊事 與鄧麗君難了合唱緣


I suppose the name trivia can go. Maybe we could include the first "other" trivia (with her personal favorite song) within the article which mentions about "Coming Home". The rest I don't think are necessary. Jason Gervais 20:11, 16 March 2007 (UTC)
Archive This is an archive of past discussions. Do not edit the contents of this page. If you wish to start a new discussion or revive an old one, please do so on the current talk page.