Sally Yeh (born 30 September 1961), sometimes credited as Sally Yip or Yip Sin-man, is a Hong Kong and Canadian singer and actress.

Early life

Born in

Taipei , nickname = The City of Azaleas , image_map = , map_caption = , pushpin_map = Taiwan#Asia#Pacific Ocean#Earth , coordinates = , subdivision_type = Country ...

Taiwan Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia. The main geography of Taiwan, island of Taiwan, also known as ''Formosa'', lies between the East China Sea, East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocea ...

, Yeh immigrated to

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...

at the age of four with her family and grew up in

Victoria, British Columbia Victoria is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of British Columbia, on the southern tip of Vancouver Island off Canada's Pacific Ocean, Pacific coast. The city has a population of 91,867, and the Gre ...

. As a result of this, she has

Canadian Canadians () are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of their being ''C ...

citizenship.

Career

Yeh's singing career started in the early 1980s and, shortly after, her acting career started as she sang songs specifically written for the movie soundtrack. She has released a total of thirty studio albums, plus compilations and live recordings. Yeh first relocated to Taiwan to pursue a career in singing, and later relocated to

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 ...

, which at the time was the primary center of Chinese entertainment, for a better chance at fame. Ng Ching Yuen, who was the CEO of Warner Music Hong Kong, arranged for her then-husband, George Lam, to teach Yeh to sing and speak

Hong Kong Cantonese Hong Kong Cantonese is a dialect of Cantonese spoken primarily in Hong Kong. As the most commonly spoken language in Hong Kong, it shares a recent and direct lineage with the Guangzhou ( Canton) dialect. Due to the colonial heritage of Hong ...

. Since then, Yeh has focused primarily on the Hong Kong Cantonese entertainment world. With the support of utilizing romanization to read Chinese characters in Mandarin and Cantonese in addition to her interactions within the Chinese entertainment business, she began to make improvements on both her spoken

Mandarin Mandarin or The Mandarin may refer to: Language * Mandarin Chinese, branch of Chinese originally spoken in northern parts of the country ** Standard Chinese or Modern Standard Mandarin, the official language of China ** Taiwanese Mandarin, Stand ...

and

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 ...

, including reading

Chinese characters Chinese characters are logographs used Written Chinese, to write the Chinese languages and others from regions historically influenced by Chinese culture. Of the four independently invented writing systems accepted by scholars, they represe ...

. However, because she never had a formal Chinese education, her proficiency in reading Chinese is still limited on various levels. When Yeh has to read Chinese characters, she still relies on Mandarin romanization and Cantonese romanization for support. In a July 2022 interview, Yeh admitted that over the years of her career singing Chinese songs, very often she is not able to fully understand the lyrics and has to listen to the arrangements of the music to be able to appropriately relate to the songs. Yeh has received the Most Popular Hong Kong Female Singer award at the Jade Solid Gold Best Ten Music Awards four times (1990, 1991, 1992, and 1993). In 1992, Yeh collaborated with a couple of other western artists, recording "I'm Always Dreaming of You" with

Tommy Page Thomas Alden Page (May 24, 1970– March 3, 2017) was an American singer-songwriter, best known for his 1990 hit single "I'll Be Your Everything (Tommy Page song), I'll Be Your Everything" and was later a music industry executive. Page collabor ...

in 1992 and "I Believe in Love" with

James Ingram James Edward Ingram (February 16, 1952 – January 29, 2019) was an American singer, songwriter and record producer. He was a two-time Grammy Award-winner and a two-time Academy Award nominee for Best Original Song. After beginning his career ...

the following year. In 2002, Yeh re-entered the

Cantopop Cantopop (a contraction of "Cantonese pop music") is a genre of pop music sung in Cantonese. Cantopop is also used to refer to the cultural context of its production and consumption. The genre began in the 1970s and became associated with Hon ...

market, released the record "Can You Hear", and performed a series of concerts in different countries. In 2011, Yeh received the Golden Needle Award at the 33rd

RTHK Radio Television Hong Kong (RTHK) is the public broadcasting service of Hong Kong. GOW, the predecessor to RTHK, was established in 1928 as the first broadcasting service in Hong Kong. As a government department under the Commerce and Econom ...

Top Ten Chinese Gold Song Music Award Ceremony. Yeh has also collaborated on a number of soundtracks (mostly on

Tsui Hark Tsui Hark (, , born 15 February 1950), born Tsui Man-kong (), is a Hong Kong filmmaker. A major director in the Golden Age of Cinema of Hong Kong, Hong Kong cinema, Tsui gained critical and commercial success with films such as ''Zu Warriors from ...

's movies with scores by

Wong Jim James Wong Jim (; 18 March 1941 – 24 November 2004, also known as "霑叔" or "Uncle Jim") was a Cantopop lyricist and songwriter based primarily in Hong Kong. Beginning from the 1960s, he was the lyricist for over 2,000 songs, collaborating ...

), including "Lai Ming But Yiu Loi" from '' A Chinese Ghost Story'' (1987), which won the Best Original Song award at the 7th Hong Kong Film Awards.

Image and artistry

Yeh was one of the earliest

Overseas Chinese Overseas Chinese people are Chinese people, people of Chinese origin who reside outside Greater China (mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan). As of 2011, there were over 40.3 million overseas Chinese. As of 2023, there were 10.5 milli ...

celebrities to enter the entertainment industry in China during the 1980s and one of the few from an English-speaking country. She was also one of the earliest Mandarin speaking celebrities to enter the Hong Kong entertainment industry. In doing so, she paved a way for future divas such as

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 ...

, whom she collaborated with occasionally in her prime.

Personal life

On 17 July 1996, Yeh married Hong Kong pop star and composer-producer George Lam. She is stepmother to his two children. Yeh speaks English,

, and

in that order of proficiency.

Discography

Filmography

*''Honest Little Ma'' 一根火柴 (1980) *''Marianna'' 賓妹 (a.k.a. 你要活著回去) (1982) *'' Crimson Street'' 殺人愛情街 (1982) *''Golden Queen Commando'' (a.k.a. ''Amazon Commando'' / ''Jackie Chan's Crime Force'' / ''Sexy Commando'') 紅粉兵團 (1982) *''Pink Force Commando'' (Sequel to Golden Queens Commando) 紅粉游俠 (a.k.a. 烈血長天) (1982) *''A Flower in the Storm'' (a.k.a. ''Falling in the Rain Flowers'') 飄零雨中花 (1983) *''A Certain Romance'' 少女日記 (1984) *''Funny Face'' (cameo) 醜小鴨 (1984) *'' Shanghai Blues'' 上海之夜 (1984) *''The Occupant'' (a.k.a. ''The Tenant'') 靈氣迫人 (1984) *''Teppanyaki'' (a.k.a. ''New Mr. Boo, Teppanyaki / Mr. Boo 6'') 鐵板燒 (1984) *''Seven Foxes'' X陷阱 (1984) *''Mob Busters'' 惡漢笑擊隊 (a.k.a.情報販子) (1985) *'' Cupid One'' 愛神一號 (1985) *''Just For Fun'' 空心少爺 (1985) *'' The Protector'' 威龍猛探 (1985) (Hong Kong version) *''Welcome'' 補鑊英雄 (1985) *'' Aces Go Places 4'' (a.k.a. ''Mad Mission IV'' / ''You Never Die Twice'') 最佳拍擋IV之千里救差婆 (1986) *'' Peking Opera Blues'' 刀馬旦 (1986) *'' The Laser Man'' (1988) *'' The Diary of a Big Man'' 大丈夫日記 (1988) *'' I Love Maria'' (a.k.a. ''RoboForce'') 鐵甲無敵瑪利亞 (1988) *'' The Killer'' 喋血雙雄 (1989) *''

Swordsman Swordsmanship or sword fighting refers to the skills and techniques used in combat and training with any type of sword. The term is modern, and as such was mainly used to refer to smallsword fencing, but by extension it can also be applied to a ...

'' (Uncredited / She had to leave this troubled production before filming completed, but a couple shots of her remain in the film, her role was filled by Sharla Cheung Man) 笑傲江湖 (1990) *'' The Banquet'' (cameo) 豪門夜宴 (1991) *'' Sisters of the World Unite'' 莎莎嘉嘉站起來 (1991) *'' Love Under the Sun'' (2003)

References

External links

*
Sally Yeh: The Effervescent Queen of Pop

Sally Yeh's Facebook

Sally Yeh's Weibo

ILove-Sally.com
{{DEFAULTSORT:Yeh, Sally 1961 births Living people Actresses from Taipei Actresses from Victoria, British Columbia Canadian musicians of Taiwanese descent Immigrants to British Hong Kong Cantopop singers Hong Kong film actresses 20th-century Hong Kong women singers Hong Kong people of Taiwanese descent Hong Kong Mandopop singers Hong Kong television actresses Musicians from Taipei Musicians from Victoria, British Columbia Taiwanese emigrants to Canada Taiwanese emigrants to Hong Kong Taiwanese women singers Taiwanese film actresses 20th-century Hong Kong actresses 21st-century Hong Kong actresses Hong Kong Buddhists Taiwanese Buddhists 21st-century Hong Kong women singers