Ho was born on 22 December 1948 in China. She studied in St. Paul's Convent School in Hong Kong, and pursued art, theater, and music as a child. She went on to attend Hong Kong University, earning a Bachelor of Arts in 1971 and a master's degree in 1973. She studied art history in France, graduating from the University of Bordeaux in 1974 with a degree in French Studies, before completing a diploma in arts management from the City University, London. Her husband Ronald Ng is a hematologist, and her son Andrew Ng is an artificial-intelligence researcher.
