movana was born in 1974 in chaozhou, china, she went to shenzhen with her family in mid-1980s and then moved to hong kong. in the run-up to the handover in 1997, they moved to singapore, where she started her interest in art and dreamed of becoming a fashion designer. however, her father wanted her to take over his business. she persuaded him to allow her to go to the london college of fashion in london. she studied fashion design there for a year and return to hong kong and studied accountancy.