Anita Mui in Concert: The Evening Hour of Our Diva

Hong Kong, The Music Issue

99.70 FM is currently only playing Anita’s songs, along with talking to her friends as well as reading messages from fans they recieve by fax, phone, email or ICQ, from Hong Kong, China and I just heard someone from Canada.

You can light a Candle for Mui Gei on: Goodbye Leslie

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I wrote this in November.. I never posted it, coz I meant to work on it more… but she’s gone..

Bad girl, Witch, Little Sister, Pop Goddess, Tragic Figure, Queen and Diva. As Anita Mui said in the concert last night, “I gave you 20 years and all my youth,” in return we gave her ours. As one of the youngest person at the concert last night, I still have some of mine but I am sure the others concert goers felt the same.

And she is dying and she was saying goodbye.

The gossip mags are filled with stories of her late stage Ovarian Cancer, the disease that killed her sister two years ago, and how she was forced to start her treatment in chemotherapy before the her one week concert series “Anita Mui’s Classic Moments.”

I understand why she decided to do this. Performing is her life, she wanted to go on. Starting from her childhood and teen years as a street Opera singer in the outdoor areas of Temple Street, Anita Mui sang. That’s all she knows, so it makes sense that she will continue to do this, even in her evening hours.

Even though it was hard to watch. About half the songs in their concert where renditions of hers done by her compatriots

She barely had any formal education. In her 20s she made some headway in one of the myriads of singing competitions that occur all over Asia, and worked her way up in the just burgeoning Canto Pop Scene in Hong Kong in the eighties: making music, doing TV series, and movies.

She often played tragic figures, who fell in love with the bad boy, the rich boy, the old man and was left in ruin. She played opium addicts, night club singers, dark women. She did some comedies, but they were forgettable because it was her torch songs that made her characters so memorable, Man Chu Sar War, Yuen Fun.

She hit it big with her song “Bad Girl” about the transformation of a virginal girl to a dark street kid, not understanding the pull of this change and asking “Why Why Tell Me Why?” And went straight into a generation of girls and young women’s heart. Especially mine. Her concert was the first I ever attended, and 12 (Where I ran down, to the stage and as the smallest kid in the group, she bent down and gave me a kiss). Through the years I gone to all the ones she’s had while in the time I was in Hong Kong. Four in total in the span of 20 years.

She was the first star I worshiped and wanted to be like. She holds the world record of the largest numbers of stage costume changes, and also at that time, the longest running concert series: 32 consequtive shows.

Through tears she did a medley of her favorite songs, hers and those by her closest comrades -Leslie and Danny, both not here. Leslie Cheung killed himself this year at the age of 48 and Danny Chan died of a Cocaine overdose a decade ago, he was in his early 30s. Both gone far too young.

Near the end, I could no longer watch and walked out of the coliseum for a while. I could hear her voice, but from the woman I looked up to, she’s now rambling, weak, and losing her voice. Most of her costumes included wigs, and large hair pieces probably as a way to hide her losing hair. For some reason her costume designer created ridiculously heavy affairs (she mentioned they were 80 pounds) for her thin body to carry, struggling to move and it seemed ridiculous even for a healthy person to endure such excess to look good, cruel considering the situation.

She ends the concert and the crowd goes “Awwww.” And my friend looks at her watch.

“It’s only….been…”

and I wail, “Please, just let her go!”

For the last song, I hid my head. The feeding frenzy of fame, which I am uncomfortable with most of the time, while being guilty of it every second, left me out of breath.

As I saw her like that I wondered if I had grown far older than I had noticed. Nearly 30, I didn’t see it arriving either.

Anita, Thank you for all your youth. Thank you for all those moments that would make this piece a novella. If you have to go. Please do it with the humour, spunk, and wink of an eye that you were so good at.

Anita Mui Passed Away on December 30th 2003 at around 2am in the morning.

…The radio is calling you the “Mega-Star of a Generation.” Which you are. No doubt. I will try not to cry, will not call your name, as you wished, so you can go in peace. I hope you are with your friends now.

Anita’s Funeral will be held on Jan 11th in the Hong Kong Funeral Home and the cremation will be held on the 12th. The ceremony will follow Buddhist Traditions.

Goodbye Anita Mui

2003: Goodbye Anita, Goodbye Leslie, Hello SARs.

Two Greats Together Again

Anita Mui’s First Concert 1986 Photos: Personal Collection