A polyglot, Teng's voice and emotionally resonant songs have transcended geographical, linguistic, and political boundaries, captivating audiences across Asia for several decades.

[10] The only daughter among five children, Teng was raised in a poverty-stricken Kuomintang family and spent her early childhood in military dependents' villages, first in Yunlin and then in Pingtung.

[13] Teng earned her first major prize in 1964, when she sang "Visiting Yingtai" from Shaw Brothers' Huangmei opera movie, The Love Eterne, at an event hosted by the Broadcasting Corporation of China.

However, due to conflict between her performances and studies, forced by family economic factors, Teng dropped out of school in the second year and pursued her career as a singer professionally.

[20] Teng's albums sold well, and she eventually got an opportunity to record a theme song for Jingjing, Taiwan's first televised series, and did a promotional tour that attracted attention in the media.

[30][21] Shanghai Party newspaper Wenhui Bao expressed fears that Teng's songs may erode the revolutionary spirit of the (Communist) Chinese.

That same year, Teng released her most critically acclaimed album, Dandan youqing, translated as Light Exquisite Feeling, which sets 12 poems from the Tang and Song dynasties into music, blending modern and traditional styles.

[35] It received a positive response from both the public and critics, commending Teng's outstanding interpretation of the ancient poems and successfully projecting classical Chinese literature into a contemporary popular music style.

[43] One of Taiwan's most famous cultural exports,[44][45] Teng was born to a military family, her father served as a member of the Republic of China Armed Forces during World War II.

[46] On 8 June 1973, Teng participated in the "Far East Top Ten Stars Charity Gala" in Singapore, gave four performances, and raised $400,000 to be used as scholarships for students in need.

In 1980, she raised over US$1 million for Yan Chai Hospital in Hong Kong and donated the proceeds of her show in Taiwan to that country's national trust fund.

[55] Wang Yueyang from Sina News commented that "Teng's voice is very distinctive, soft, and soothing," stating that "you can't hear her breathing and she can sing continuous high notes without nasal sounds.

Hundreds of high-ranking officials and dignitaries, including commanders from three branches of the military, attended the funeral and accompanied Teng's coffin to her grave.

[69] The gravesite features a golden-colored, life-size statue of her, and a large electronic piano keyboard set in the ground that can be played by visitors who step on the keys.

On the left side of the coffin lid, there is a stone stele on which is engraved with the epitaph: "Here lies a superstar who dedicated her life to singing."

[16] In May 1995, Shanghai Radio host Dalù dedicated the Sunday morning broadcast to the Taiwanese singer, who died a few days earlier.

Throughout her 30-year career and up to this point, Teng has been recognized as one of the most celebrated and influential figures in Asian music and popular culture,[26][75][76] considering her deep impact on the whole of Chinese society, with an influence extending beyond music to include both political and cultural spheres, while her Asia-wide reach is largely attributed to her multi-lingual abilities, which established her as an icon in all of Asia, heralding the era of region-wide pop superstardom that has become today's norm.

[80][19] Teng's profound influence on Asian popular music and the Chinese cultural sphere throughout the latter half of the 20th century and beyond[33][58] led to her being recognized as the Far East's first pop superstar.

These include singer Faye Wong, Jay Chou, Jane Zhang, Kazukiyo Nishikiori of Japanese pop group Shonentai, Tetsuya Murakami of The Gospellers, Junko Akimoto, Rimi Natsukawa, "father" of Chinese rock Cui Jian, Romanian singer Cristina Boboacă,[85] fashion designer Vivienne Tam, Nobel Prize laureate and writer Liu Xiaobo, poet and writer Xu Pei, manga artist Kenshi Hirokane, filmmaker Jia Zhangke, as well as painter and sculptor Jian Guo,[86] among others.

[28][87] Musicians began to study the new forms of music that entered the mainland through foreign cassettes and tape recorders, such as orchestration and singing style.

Her frequent use of jazz or jazz-influenced ensembles in her music set the standard for saxophone performance practice in mainland pop today.

[28] By the early 1970s, as rates of radio ownership began to increase, especially of cheap and portable transistor models, listening to Teng's music became the primary attraction.

Author Ah Cheng recalled hearing her music for the first time in 1975 as a sort of excitement and extreme addiction that he and his friends would press their ears to the wooden frame of a shortwave radio only to get her voice heard.

[92] Wu'erkaixi, a Chinese political commentator of Uyghur heritage, asserted that the youngsters who listened to her songs discovered the desire for the pursuit of freedom through her singing voice.

[97] Teng became popular in Japan and Southeast Asia, and to some extent, South Asia,[4] achieving a "cult status" in Hong Kong, Taiwan, Mainland China, and Japan, where she became a "barometer of cross-strait relations" in rising geopolitical tensions at the time,[98] and one of the first artists to break through linguistic and cultural barriers, garnering recognition and acclaim from cultures across much of the region that had previously been confined to national borders.

[99][77] Teng's songs have been covered by hundreds of artists all over the world, such as Faye Wong, Leslie Cheung, Jon Bon Jovi, Siti Nurhaliza, Shila Amzah, Katherine Jenkins, Im Yoon-ah, David Archuleta, Agnez Mo, Greek singer Nana Mouskouri, English vocal group Libera, Jewish singer Noa, Grammy Award-winning American musician Kenny G, Kiwi pianist Carl Doy, Cuba's leading a cappella musical band Vocal Sampling, among others.

[100][101][102] Her songs are also featured in various international films, such as Rush Hour 2, The Game, Prison On Fire, Year of the Dragon, Formosa Betrayed, Gomorrah, Crazy Rich Asians, and the Disney + TV series American Born Chinese.

"[109] Andrew N. Weintraub and Bart Barendregt described her as "a model of inter-Asian modernity whose voice crossed linguistic, national and generational borders",[99] whereas John F. Copper called her "the most heard singer in the world ever" during her time.

[130] On 29 January 2018, a Google Doodle was released across Japan, China, Taiwan, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, India, Philippines, Australia, New Zealand, Sweden, Bulgaria, and Iceland to honor Teng on what have been be her 65th birthday.

However, Beau's grandmother imposed several conditions on their union, including that Teng cease her career as an entertainer as well as fully disclose her biography and all her past relationships in writing.