Born in Shanghai, Vera (Weiling) Tsu studied the violin with her father, a well known teacher, and at the Beijing Conservatory. Here she attracted the attention of Isaac Stern, appearing in his film From Mao to Mozart, Seiji Ozawa and Yehudi menuhin, the last of whom sponsored her study in Switzerland. In 1980 she entered the Juilliard School of Music in new York, where she studied with Dorothy Delay and Rafael Bronstein, winning first prize in the Manoque International Young Artist Competition in 1981 and later the Waldo Mayo Talent Award and the Artists International Competition. Her career has brought recitals and appearances as a soloist in the United States, in Europe and in China, with a notable solo recital in Paris in 1993 in a gala concert at the Theatre des Champs-Elysees for the Legion d'Honneur. In the same year she moved to Hong Kong as First Associate Concertmaster of the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra.