Wei Xiu Xian

Biography

Wei Xiu Xian was born in 1932 in Shanghai and became one of Hong Kong's prominent singers. She moved to Hong Kong with her family in 1949 and graduated from St. Paul's Co-educational College. She began her music career in the 1950s after winning the Hong Kong Schools Music Festival senior solo singing competition. She studied under vocal teacher Zhao Mei Bo and obtained a performance diploma from the Royal Academy of Music. In 1956, she was discovered by the director of Philips Records at a musical concert and joined the company, releasing her first record. She later moved to B.T. Records in 1959. She sang numerous Chinese and foreign songs as well as folk and art songs, and also worked in voice dubbing for film companies. In the 1960s she began teaching vocal music at several art institutions in Hong Kong, with many prominent artists such as Leon Lai and Sammi Cheng studying under her. She emigrated to Canada in the mid-1980s and settled in Toronto in semi-retirement.