Born to an actress and a painter in Zhejiang, China, in 1979, actress Wei Tang eventually attended the Central Academy of Drama in Beijing, where she studied directing. Planning to work as a writer as well as a director, Tang also had a passion for acting, which she was able to put to the test when director Ang Lee chose her out of over 10,000 auditioning hopefuls to play the starring role of Wang Jiazhi in his film Lust, Caution, about the Japanese occupation of China during World War II.