Classic Moments

I know I've been talking about the late Anita Mui Yim-Fong a lot lately, I wasn't even a fan... I didn't know any of her songs prior to her parting, having only seen movies of hers here and there... Grieving, a person whom I've never met... a strange bit! Yet it's not her music or her movies...

I've been reading many articles about Anita since her death... That she lost her father when she was very young. After that, at the age of 4, she and her sister had to perform at this local run-down theme park [yeah, I've been there when I was just a wee boy! My dad used to take me, and 'run-down' is an understatement!] to earn additional income for the family. When she won her singing contest in the 80's, she wasn't an overnight sensation either... it was years later that she finally got the attention and the support from the public! In the late 80's, she starred in Rouge, her most well-known film to date, partnered [in many films together] with the late Leslie Cheung, whom also died in 2003, April. Leslie was one of her one true friend.
She discovered her terminal condition less than 2 years ago before her death. She underwent Western and Eastern cancer treatment and doctors also told her that she must have a hysterectomy... She refused because she was still thinking of getting married, and eventually, having children... a family of her own. That might've been a 'stupid' mistake to most people, but she listened to her own voice, stood by it, and that's what mattered to her. Anita was a strong woman 'til the very end, a woman of bravery and integrity, a woman of chance... She was also famous for contributing and making donations to numerous charity organizations.

So I got her Anita Classic Moment Live CD set the other day, and I've been listening to it ever since. It was an 8-day run concert held in November of 2003; 2 months after she made public about her illness, and a month before she passed. People didn't think she could do it, but she proved to them and to herself, that she did. What she said during the concert [inbetween songs] really made an impression on me [they were actual tracks on the CDs, I've made translation below for 3 of the tracks, gosh I'm such a cheese-ball!!!]... Anyway, maybe this will be my last entry about Anita...

Anita & Leslie, may you both find each other in heaven, again...
Spoken words from CD:
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...In the past few months, many things have happened... I just realised, life is melancholy, yet ironic... whether if it's my own personal business or the SARS incident in HK, many, many questions have been asked yet unanswered... Also the last few months I've lost my [few] only true friends... I've been very sad and somber... I asked and I asked myself again: "Am I going to go on... like this?" If my friends now knew the answer, they would be heartbroken... even for my friends who have past on, I think they wouldn't want to see me this way...

That's why, I tell myself - I live to live, no matter... whatever happens tomorrow, I have to work hard on whatever I do today... with full vigour, no matter how difficult, to face my tomorrow... I want to make this concert a lengthy one, probably because I feel a need to 'push myself to the limit', and I think everyone needs this hope and drive to go on... We can't tell people that we just give up, on what we have, on this lifetime, because it was given to us by the 'sky-above'... I hope you all will like the songs I picked out for you all in the next set, to see if they're appropriate, and to your liking...

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...It's been a pleasure and an honour to be a singer/entertainer, especially when I feel the love and the support from all my fans, I feel very happy and content... Yet now, I don't see our relationship as simply being 'a performer and her fans', right now, I see you all as my very good 'old friends'... Because I think we've known each other for more than a decade now, or else I wouldn't have called you all - my dear 'old friends'... That's why the next song, is truly for all my very good, very good, very good fans... for you all, my "old friends" [in English]...
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...[The last act, Anita came out in a wedding dress] Thank you everyone... Do I look pretty in a wedding gown? [audience cheered!] I've always been a singer, though I'm also an actor, wearing a wedding gown tonight isn't my first time, but not a single time I wore it for myself... Maybe this is my only regret in life... but I have my love from all of you, and you all have been here to fill this void... I'm very blessed, for I am married to my music, and I am married to my fans...

This is my last song, to give to you all... I feel that everyday, that the sunrise and sunset are so beautiful... yet fleeting... we should truly treasure what we have today, what's around us, right now... or else, in a heartbeat, everything is gone...

Images: Top picture from Ming Pao Weekly, HK; Anita Classic Moment Live CD insert

Posted by robert at January 16, 2004 08:12 PM