In 1988 she was sponsored by an American family for a student visa to the United States of America. She studied economics at Cal State Northridge and is a graduate of the Yale School of Management where she currently serves on the board of advisors Her first work experience in the media was with Fox TV. After Fox TV, she was offered an internship at Star TV, Hong Kong, part of News Corporation. Deng met Rupert Murdoch in Hong Kong in 1997 when she was 29 years old and Murdoch was 66.
Born in Jinan, Shandong and raised in Xuzhou, Jiangsu, she was originally named Deng Wenge (邓文革 Dèng Wéngé), She is the third of four children (three daughters, one son) born to engineers. Deng attended the local Xuzhou First Secondary School and Xuzhou No. 1 Middle School. She developed a strong interest in playing volleyball. While Deng was in high school, her father relocated to Hangzhou, where he was employed at the People's Machinery Works; she and her family remained behind for a short while. In 1985, when she was 16 years old, Deng enrolled in Guangzhou Medical College.
