Anita Mui

Anita Mui Yim-fong (; 10 October 1963 – 30 December 2003) was a Hong Konger singer and actress who made major contributions to the Cantopop music scene and received numerous awards and honours. She remained an idol throughout her career, and is regarded as "Queen of Cantopop". She was dubbed as the "daughter of Hong Kong" and is considered one of the most iconic Cantopop singers.

Mui once held a sold-out concert in Hammersmith, London, England, where she was dubbed the "Madonna of Asia", which brought her to further international fame. That title stayed with her throughout her career, in both Eastern and Western media.

In the 1980s, the gangtai style of music was revolutionised by Mui's wild dancing and on-stage femininity. She was famed for her outrageous costumes and high-powered performances in tandem with contralto vocals, which are rare in female artists. Her 1985 album, Bad Girl, sold over 400,000 copies in Hong Kong and remains the highest-selling album of all time in the territory.

Her fan base reached far beyond Hong Kong into many parts of Asia, including Taiwan, China, Singapore, Korea, Japan and Malaysia. In the Hong Kong entertainment industry, where stars often rise and fall quickly, Mui consistently remained in the spotlight for 21 years (1982–2003). Her career came to an abrupt end in 2003 when she announced she had cervical cancer. She died later that year at the age of 40; She is the youngest daughter in a family of four children, and the only one of the four born in Hong Kong, as her siblings were born in China. Mui's father died when she was very young. Her mother Mui Tam Mei-kam was born in Xiguan, Guangzhou, still alive as a centenarian. She was a Chinese medicine practitioner, who opened Yuet Wah Chinese Medical Clinic, Wah Geong Chinese and Western Music College, and a music brand in Hong Kong. Her siblings are Mui Kai-Ming, Mui Tak-Ming, and singer Ann Mui. They used "Po-chu" and "Fong Fong" as their stage name respectively for their favourite actresses, Connie Chan (Chan Po-chu) and Josephine Siao (Siu Fong Fong). They would later adopt Yi Yi (依依) and Yi Na (依娜) as their stage names. Mui performed Chinese operas and pop songs in theatres, amusement parks and on the streets. She would transfer to another school and studied there till secondary one. While studying, Mui would be bullied by her school mates as singers were ridiculed and looked down upon.

At the age of 15, due to her high frequency of performances (up to six venues per day), she developed nodules on her vocal cords that affected her voice. Following the advice of the doctor, she took a year off and to keep herself occupied, she attended art lessons with her cousin. After a year, she started performing again despite the change in her vocal range, which lowered her voice by an octave.

Career

Singing career

In 1982, encouraged by her sister, Mui competed in the first New Talent Singing Awards, organised by TVB and Capital Artists, in her stage name Yi Na. There, Mui got a big break by emerging champion with the song "The Windy Season" (風的季節), originally sung by Paula Tsui, beating over 3,000 contestants. Despite her title as "new talent" at that time, she had already been singing for more than 10 years performing as a busker from street and club performances during her childhood. The album drew a lukewarm response from the market. However, her subsequent albums, Red () (1983) and Leaping in the Spotlight () (1984) fared much better, as she developed her personal style and image, with guidance and support from fashion designer Eddie Lau. In 1983 and 1984, she won the RTHK Top 10 Gold Songs awards back to back.

Her winning streak continued when she won another major award in 1985, her first top 10 Jade Solid Gold Best Female Singer award. Thereafter, she won the award every year until 1989. She was awarded the Gold Songs Gold Awards () in 1989 for the ballad "Song of the Sunset" (), which became one of her signature songs throughout her career. In 1985, at the age of 21, Mui held her first concert lasting 15 nights (thus being one of the youngest singers to hold a concert at the Hong Kong Coliseum).

Beginning in late 1987 through early 1988, Mui held a series of 28 concerts at the Coliseum . This established a record at the time and dubbed Mui the title of "Ever Changing Anita Mui" (), which had become her trademark. Her popularity was also gaining prominence outside of Hong Kong, as she was invited to sing at the 1988 Summer Olympics opening ceremony in Seoul together with Janet Jackson as well as also performing her own solo with one of her hit songs of that year, "Blazing Red Lips (烈燄紅唇)".

On February 12, 1994, Mui was invited to hold a concert at the MGM Grand Garden Arena which is located on the Las Vegas Strip in Paradise, Nevada. The venue opened on December 31, 1993, with a concert by Barbra Streisand, and subsequent concerts by Luther Vandross, Mui herself and Janet Jackson. In 1995, Mui performed the song "Bad Girl" (a Cantonese cover of Sheena Easton's "Strut") in Guangzhou, China, where it was banned, as it was considered pornographic in nature. Mui mentored several Hong Kong newcomer singers who have since become successful, most notably Andy Hui, Denise Ho, Edmond Leung, the band Grasshopper, and Patrick Tam. Her best-selling album was the 1985 "Bad Girl" (), which sold over 400,000 copies in a week (platinum 8x by Hong Kong's standards) and broke the selling record in Hong Kong. In 1994, she sold over 10 million albums. She was the first female singer in Hong Kong to achieve such sales result.

Mui performed in 300 concerts in her career.

In 1998, aged 35, Mui was awarded the RTHK Golden Needle Award, being one of the youngest recipients to receive the award as a lifetime achievement.

In 2003, Mui announced that she had cervical cancer, from which her sister had also died.

Her symbolic act was to "marry the stage", which was accompanied by her hit song "Sunset Melody" () as she exited the stage wearing a white wedding dress and veil. The last song she performed on stage was "Cherish When We Meet Again" (), a rendition of The Manhattans' "Kiss and Say Goodbye", on 15 November 2003, where she was accompanied by her friends on stage.

thumb|Mui's star on the [[Avenue of Stars, Hong Kong|Avenue of Stars]]

Acting career

Mui was also well known as an actress across Asia, as she starred in more than 40 films over a 20-year period. Her films were mainly of the action-thriller and martial arts variety, but she had also taken comedic and dramatic roles.

Her first acting award as a supporting actress was won at the Hong Kong Film Awards for her performance in Behind the Yellow Line (1984) alongside fellow Cantopop icon Leslie Cheung. Three years later in 1987, her performance in Stanley Kwan's Rouge, which also starred Cheung, won her the Best Actress Award at the Golden Horse Awards, In the same year, she starred alongside Chow Yun-fat in Tsui Hark's A Better Tomorrow III: Love & Death in Saigon, which features her iconic ballad "Song of the Sunset". She also co-starred with Chow Yun-fat in the 1988 romantic comedy The Greatest Lover.

In 1990, she was cast in the titular role for Kawashima Yoshiko, a biopic of the flamboyant cross-dressing spy Yoshiko Kawashima based on the novel by Lilian Lee, who also authored the original novel and screenplay for Rouge. In 1992, she starred alongside comedy icon Stephen Chow in Justice, My Foot!, proving her calibre in the comedy genre. She also paired up with Stephen Chow in 1993 in Fight Back to School III. In the same year, she starred in The Heroic Trio with Michelle Yeoh and Maggie Cheung, and it proved to be one of her most popular action films. In 1994 and 1995, she found some international recognition by starring opposite Jackie Chan in The Legend of Drunken Master and Rumble in the Bronx.

In 2003, Mui was originally cast for a major role for House of Flying Daggers but eventually declined due to her failing health before any of her scenes were filmed. After her death on 30 December 2003, director Zhang Yimou decided to alter the script to remove her character rather than recasting her. She also performed at the 1989 Hong Kong concert for Chinese Democracy and vowed never to perform again in mainland China. Her rendition of Bloodstained Glory (血染的風采) has been praised as best among many. According to the posthumous memoirs of democracy activist Szeto Wah, Mui lent significant financial and material support to Operation Yellowbird, to help activists flee from China after the Tiananmen protests.

Mui was also actively involved in charitable projects throughout her career to give back to the community. After the Eastern China flood of 1991, she changed her mind about her boycott of mainland China and took part with other Hong Kong stars in a Beijing concert to raise funds for victims of the catastrophe. The Canadian city of Toronto declared 23 October 1993 to be "Anita Mui Day".

During the severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) outbreak, she initiated a fundraising concert titled the 1:99 Concert to raise money for SARS-affected families, which attracted famous fellow celebrities such as Andy Lau and Jacky Cheung. Despite rumours of her dating several men, Mui never married.

On 5 September 2003, Mui publicly announced that she had cervical cancer, from which her sister had also died. Mui was cremated and her ashes are interred at the Po Lin Monastery's mausoleum on Lantau Island.

Will

In her will, Mui bequeathed two properties to her fashion designer, Eddie Lau, and the remainder to the Karen Trust – a trust she had set up and looked after by HSBC International Trustees. Its beneficiaries included her mother, , and four nieces and nephews. The Karen Trust provided Tam with a life tenancy of HK$70,000 per month; upon Tam's death, the estate would go to the New Horizon Buddhist Association ().

In 2005, Tam received a HK$705,000 lump-sum payment from the trust in May. She applied for and obtained a hardship grant to pay for medical expenditure of $50,000 in December; her application for funds from the estate to challenge the will was denied. In 2008, Mui's estate was estimated to be worth HK$100 million. Tam Mei-kam contested the will, arguing that Mui was mentally unfit when she executed her will in 2003, weeks before her death. The High Court ruled that Mui was of sound mind when she signed the will, and that she simply did not trust her mother with money.

Over the years, Tam mounted several legal challenges to the will, and succeeded in having the life tenancy varied to HK$120,000. Tam reportedly owed $2 million in legal costs in 2011. In January 2013, the court ruled that the monthly tenancy of HK$120,000 to Tam, suspended since the previous July, would continue to be frozen due to mounting debts of the estate. Her brother was declared bankrupt on 17 January 2013 for failing to pay legal fees relating to the appeals. In May 2013, the court ordered the estate to pay Tam HK$20,000 a month for her living costs, as well as $240,000 to settle her overdue rent.

Legacy

left|thumb|An Anita Mui commemorative exhibition at [[Tsim Sha Tsui East Waterfront Podium Garden|TST East Waterfront Podium Garden in December 2016]]

In 1998, an ATV-produced television series Forever Love Song told a story of a character which was loosely based on that of Mui, but the character names were purposely changed. In 2007, a television series was produced in China titled Anita Mui Fei () to tell the story of her life. The 42-episode series was broadcast by China Education Television. Some subjects, such as her suffering from cancer, Leslie Cheung's suicide and her mother's real estate dilemma, were avoided. Alice Chan portrayed Mui in the series.thumb|upright=0.9|Bronze [[statue of Anita Mui in Hong Kong]]On 23 September 2004, the Anita Mui True Heart Digital Multimedia Studio was opened at the University of Hong Kong. It included state-of-the-art equipment for digital audio and video editing. In Causeway Bay, an Anita Mui-themed cafe called Happiness Moon () is also dedicated to her legacy. On 11 October 2008, a show on TVB, titled Our Anita Mui (), was dedicated to Mui. Many fans and off-stage personnel who worked with her had a chance to talk about their personal experiences with Mui. Singers who participated in the show included Andy Hui, Edmond Leung, and Stephanie Cheng. On 18 July 2014, a statue of Anita Mui was unveiled on Hong Kong's Avenue of Stars. In 2019, she was the subject of the film Dearest Anita. The film centered around individuals whose lives had been shaped by her work, including her fans and beneficiaries of her philanthropic work. In 2021, she was portrayed in the biopic Anita (), directed by Longman Leung. She was played by the Hong Kong model Louise Wong. Her work and stage costumes were displayed in an exhibition titled "Timeless Diva: Anita Mui" in the Hong Kong Heritage Museum lasting around eight months from 24 December 2023 to 2 September 2024, commemorating the 20th anniversary of her death. The exhibit included items from her private collection, including her TBS Award from the 1983 12th Tokyo Music Festival which was since housed in the museum, with courtesy of her former fashion designer and close friend Eddie Lau.

Discography

Studio albums

Cantonese

;Capital Artists Ltd.

Sum chai (Debts of the Heart) (1982)
: Also includes solo recordings by members of the Hong Kong pop band, Siu Foo Deui (The Tigers)
Red Anita Mui (Chek sik Mui Yim-fong) (1983)
: Sometimes referred as Red (Chek sik)
Leaping in the Spotlight (Fei yeok mou toi) (1984)
Chi seoi lau nin (The Years Flow Like Water) (1985)
Bad Girl

| rowspan="3"|1985

| The Musical Singer

| align=center|Jannie Fong

| Lucky Diamond

| align=center|Ah Ji

| Young Cops

| align=center|Man Rou Yim

| rowspan="5" |1986

| Why, Why, Tell Me Why?

| align=center|Fong Yim Mui

| Happy Din Don

| align=center|Singer in Club

| Last Song in Paris

| align=center|Anita Chou

| 100 Ways to Murder Your Wife

| style="text-align:center;" |Fang

| Chocolate Inspector

| align=center|Kiu-kiu

| rowspan="3" |1987

| Scared Stiff

| align=center|Miss Mui

| Happy Bigamist

| style="text-align:center;" |Yuan Tung/Park

| Troubling Couples

| align=center|Mui Tai-heung

| rowspan="4" |1988

| Rouge

| align=center|Fleur(Ju Fa/Ru Hua)

| 2002

| July Rhapsody

| align=center|Chan Man-ching

Television

{| class="wikitable"

! width=4%|Year

! style="width:29%;" |Title

! style="width:24%;"|Role

!Notes

! style="width:12%;"|Ref

| 1983

| Summer Kisses, Winter Tears

| align=center|Fong Chi Mei

| align=center|

Accolades

Top 10 Jade Solid Gold Best Female Singer Award 1985–1989
Top 10 Jade Solid Gold Gold Song Gold Award for Sunset Melody () 1989
Hong Kong Film Awards for Best Supporting Actress 1985 for Behind the Yellow Line
Golden Horse Award for Best Leading Actress 1988 for Rouge
Asia-Pacific Film Festival Awards for Best Actress 1989 for Rouge
Hong Kong Film Award for Best Actress 1989 for Rouge
Hong Kong Film Awards for Best Supporting Actress 1998 for Eighteen Springs
Golden Bauhinia Awards for Best Supporting Actress 1998 for Eighteen Springs
RTHK Golden Needle Award 1998
Golden Deer Awards for Best Actress 2002 for July Rhapsody