Xi Xi settled in Hong Kong with her parents in 1950. Her father worked in a dock company in Shanghai. He participated in football matches after work, and then became a referee. He met the famous football player Lee Wai-Tong, who helped him find work as an inspector in the Kowloon Bus Company. Xi Xi’s father coached the Brazilian football team and became a referee in the Football Association. But because of the pressure, he did not stay long. Xi Xi was on the football field with her father since she was a child, and it cultivated her interest in watching football games in the future. She was a fan of British Arsenal in the era of Thierry Henry.
Xi Xi has an elder brother, two younger sisters, and a younger brother. After arriving in Hong Kong, she entered Heep Yunn Middle School. She was in the Chinese Department in junior high school, then transferred to the English Department after Form 4. In Hong Kong, life was quite difficult due to the size of her family, with Xi Xi’s father as the sole financial supporter. Xi Xi often worried about the school expenses. There is a detailed description of her younger years in the novel Birds of Passage (1991), which reflects Xi Xi’s own memories.