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Sally Yeh (born 30 September 1961), sometimes credited as Sally Yip or Yip Sin-man, is a Hong Kong and Canadian singer and actress.
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Sally Yeh | |||||||||||
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葉蒨文 | |||||||||||
 Yeh in 2019 | |||||||||||
| Pronunciation | Yip6 Sin6 Man4 | ||||||||||
| Born | 30 September 1961 Taipei, Taiwan | ||||||||||
| Nationality | Taiwanese Canadian Chinese | ||||||||||
| Occupations | |||||||||||
| Years active | 1979–present | ||||||||||
| Spouse | |||||||||||
| Awards | Hong Kong Film Awards – Best Original Film Song 1988 A Chinese Ghost Story Golden Melody Awards – Best Female Mandarin Artist 1994 | ||||||||||
| Musical career | |||||||||||
| Origin | Taiwan | ||||||||||
| Genres | Cantopop Mandopop | ||||||||||
| Chinese name | |||||||||||
| Traditional Chinese | 葉蒨文 | ||||||||||
| Simplified Chinese | 叶倩文 | ||||||||||
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Born in Taipei, Taiwan, Yeh immigrated to Canada at the age of four with her family and grew up in Victoria, British Columbia. As a result of this, she has Canadian citizenship.
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, 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.[1]
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 and Cantonese, including reading Chinese characters. However, because she never had a formal Chinese education, her proficiency in reading Chinese is still limited on various levels.[2] 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.[3]
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 in 1992[4] and "I Believe in Love" with James Ingram the following year.
In 2002, Yeh re-entered the Cantopop market, released the record "Can You Hear", and performed a series of concerts in different countries.[5] In 2011, Yeh received the Golden Needle Award at the 33rd RTHK Top Ten Chinese Gold Song Music Award Ceremony. Yeh has also collaborated on a number of soundtracks (mostly on Tsui Hark's movies with scores by Wong Jim), 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.
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Yeh was one of the earliest Overseas Chinese 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, whom she collaborated with occasionally in her prime.
On 17 July 1996, Yeh married Hong Kong pop star and composer-producer George Lam. She is stepmother to his two children.[6]
Yeh speaks English, Mandarin, and Cantonese in that order of proficiency.
- 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)[7]
- Swordsman (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)
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