''Toy'' and ''Help Yourself'' are two Cantonese extended plays (EPs) by Chinese recording artist

Faye Wong Faye Wong ( zh, 王菲; pinyin: ''Wáng Fēi''; born 8 August 1969) is a Chinese singer-songwriter and actress. Early in her career, she briefly used the stage name Shirley Wong (). Born in Beijing, she moved to British Hong Kong at the age o ...

when she was based in

Hong Kong Hong Kong)., Legally Hong Kong, China in international treaties and organizations. is a special administrative region of China. With 7.5 million residents in a territory, Hong Kong is the fourth most densely populated region in the wor ...

. In 1996, the last year of her

recording contract A recording contract (commonly called a record contract or record deal) is a legal agreement between a record label and a recording act (artist or group), where the act makes an audio recording (or series of recordings) for the label to sell and ...

with

Cinepoly Records Cinepoly Records (新藝寶) is a Hong Kong–based record label founded in 1985. It was a subsidiary of PolyGram Records and the film company Cinema City. Ownership of Cinepoly Records switched to Universal Music Group after Universal acquired ...

, Wong recorded ten original songs in

Cantonese Cantonese is the traditional prestige variety of Yue Chinese, a Sinitic language belonging to the Sino-Tibetan language family. It originated in the city of Guangzhou (formerly known as Canton) and its surrounding Pearl River Delta. While th ...

, all with lyrics by

Lin Xi Albert Leung Wai Man (, born 7 December 1961), better known by his pen name Lin Xi (), is a Hong Kong lyricist and writer. A prominent figure in Cantopop and Mandopop, he has written lyrics for nearly all major Hong Kong singers, with notable ...

but composed by others such as

Wong Ka Keung Steve Wong Ka Keung (; born 13 November 1964) is a Hong Kong musician, singer, songwriter, and the bassist for the rock band Beyond. He is also the younger brother of lead vocalist and rhythm guitarist Wong Ka Kui, who died in 1993. Life and ...

, Adrian Chan, and Chan Xiao Xia. These songs were supposed to be released as an album in 1996 or 1997; however,

Cinepoly Cinepoly Records (新藝寶) is a Hong Kong–based record label founded in 1985. It was a subsidiary of PolyGram Records and the film company Cinema City & Films Co., Cinema City. Ownership of Cinepoly Records switched to Universal Music Group a ...

decided to release the ten tracks separately on four occasions. Cinepoly later released eight of these songs in the two EPs entitled ''Toy'' and ''Help Yourself''. The other two songs were included in later compilations.

''Toy''

''Toy'' ( zh, c=, j=wun⁶ geoi⁶) was released in February 1997, during Faye Wong's

parental leave Parental leave, or family leave, is an employee benefit available in almost all countries. The term "parental leave" may include maternity, paternity, and adoption leave; or may be used distinctively from "maternity leave" and "paternity leave ...

where she gave birth to her first child. The EP's cover photo depicts Wong in her home in

Beijing Beijing, Chinese postal romanization, previously romanized as Peking, is the capital city of China. With more than 22 million residents, it is the world's List of national capitals by population, most populous national capital city as well as ...

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...

, having moved back there after several successful years based in

. The five tracks on ''Toy'' would be Wong's most significant release of new Cantonese songs until her self-titled album in 2001.

Certifications

''Help Yourself''

''Help Yourself'' ( zh, c=, j=zi⁶ bin⁶) followed in May 1997. Although this EP (like ''Toy'') contained new songs, including the hit ballad "On Time" (), and was welcomed by fans, it received lukewarm critical responses, particularly for the three remixes of songs from earlier albums. The album cover was a photograph of Faye Wong taken several years previously.

Other songs

Cinepoly's first releases of their remaining original recordings by Faye Wong were as follows: *"" () - :: 'Unbelievable', on the 1997 compilation ''Not for Sale'' (菲賣品) *"" () :: 'Scary', on the 2002 compilation ''Faye Best''

''Be Perfunctory''

''Be Perfunctory'' is the last

album by

Chinese Chinese may refer to: * Something related to China * Chinese people, people identified with China, through nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity **Han Chinese, East Asian ethnic group native to China. **'' Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic ...

singer

.Fan spends 1 mln yuan to release Faye Wong's album
China.org.cn, October 29, 2015 In 2015, a fan of Faye Wong purchased the Hong Kong publishing rights from Cinepoly (now under Universal Music Group) and started a company called Chaotic Silence in order to issue the ten tracks together in one album.

References

External links

Wun Geui
at

douban Douban.com (), launched on 6 March 2005, is a Chinese online database and social networking service that allows registered users to record information and create content related to film, books, music, recent events, and activities in Chinese ci ...

.com
Wun Geui
at mojim.com
Ji Bin
at

.com
Ji Bin
at mojim.com {{Authority control Faye Wong albums 1997 EPs Cinepoly Records EPs Cantopop EPs