[1][2] At age 16, as a member of the Soviet Union's Communist Youth League, Faina worked at the Ural Heavy Machinery Plant in Sverdlovsk, Russian SFSR, where she met Chiang Ching-kuo, her supervisor.

[2][4] When Chiang Ching-kuo became President, Fang-liang rarely performed the traditional roles of First Lady, partly due to her lack of formal education; her husband also encouraged her not to get into politics.

She never returned to Russia, and traveled abroad only three times in the last 50 years of her life, all to visit her children and their families.

[3] Each of her three younger children were born in different parts of China, reflecting turbulent years as an official of the country.

In the Taiwanese media, if she ever received coverage, she was depicted as a virtuous wife who never complained and endured her loneliness with dignity.