Success aside, Teng's love stories were not as smooth as her career.

Teng used to date Jacky Chan, who has said in several interviews that it was the wrong timing, describing Teng as being too elegant and too much of a lady to fit into his noisy lifestyle that was full of "brothers."

Later Teng was engaged to a businessman but his family forced Teng to end her career as a singer after marriage. As an independent young lady who loves singing and valued her identity as a singer, Teng chose her career over the relationship.

Neither did Teng's last boyfriend, who was a Frenchman, enjoy a happy ending as that was when Teng passed away.

"Her life is such a legend," said Dong Shaohua, 60, who has been working on a 50-episode television script about Teng's life.

Social significance

What made Teng more special was the time period in which she became popular.

When the Cultural Revolution (1966-76) was about to finish, the main entertainment for people in the mainland was to listen to the radio. Teng's music came at that time and immediately stole many hearts.

Li Zhen, 50, from Beijing has been blind since childhood and the first time she heard Teng's song was in the neighborhood in 1978. She was so attracted by the voice that she asked her family to buy a radio for her to take to her school for the blind.

"Before Teng, it was all about revolutionary songs and sung with strong and powerful voice to cheer people up. I've never heard a voice like hers," said Li.

Dong had a similar experience. Signals for radio of overseas channels were terrible back then and the first time he could clearly listen to Teng's music from a friend's tape recording in 1976: the feeling was "extremely excited."

Unfortunately, it did not take long for Teng's songs to be banned by the officials. Teng's performance for the Kuomintang military in 1981 made the situation worse.

According to Dong, the early 1980s were an especially tough time in terms of cultural freedom. A few people were put in prison for listening to Teng's "unhealthy" and "bourgeois" music.

"The actions were from the top, but in general we never really stopped listening," siad Dong. He laughed about how people were "strong and insistent" at the time.

"We were warned to hand in all the tapes but nobody around me did," said Li.