Funeral held for HK actress Kathy Chow, estate likely to go to her mum

Kathy Chow died at the age of 57 in Beijing on Dec 11. Photo: Kathy Chow/Weibo

Late Hong Kong actress Kathy Chow has been laid to rest, according to her family.

Chow, who was based in China, died at the age of 57 in Beijing on Dec 11. According to a leaked document, she had suffered from high blood pressure and systemic lupus erythematosus.

Her funeral was disclosed by her agency on Chinese social media platform Weibo on Dec 18, with a message from Chow’s mother.

“My beloved daughter Kathy Chow had always been kind, cheerful, strong and loving. She had a positive attitude towards life and remained optimistic even when she was faced with difficulties,” Chow’s mother wrote in a message on behalf of the family.

“Kathy had created countless successful characters on screen in her life, so I wish to keep her beauty in everyone’s mind by choosing to hold my beloved daughter’s funeral only in the presence of close relatives.”

She added that the family will make appropriate arrangements for Chow’s cats and dogs, which lived with her in her garden villa in Beijing.

Media reports from Hong Kong said the actress’ mother is likely to inherit her estate, as her siblings are said to have no interest in taking over her assets.

Chow’s agency also shared on social media on Dec 15 the actress’ final media interview before her death.

It posted the photos and video of her interview with a Chinese fashion magazine on Nov 17, in which she talked about some of the characters she had played.

Chow has often been hailed as the “most beautiful Zhou Zhiruo” for her portrayal of the character in the Taiwanese TV series The Heaven Sword And Dragon Sabre (1994), an adaptation of late writer Louis Cha’s martial arts novel of the same name.

Zhou is one of the female lead characters in the novel and a disciple of Abbess Miejue, the ruthless leader of Emei sword sect. Chow would go on to play the role of Miejue in the Chinese adaptation of The Heaven Sword And Dragon Sabre (2019).

Chow said in the interview that she was initially reluctant to take up the role of Zhou, as she felt that the character’s self-pity and obsession with love was very different from her own personality.

However, Taiwanese director Lai Shui-ching, who worked with her on the period drama Last Imperial Family (1992), flew to Hong Kong to convince her and her manager that the character was richer than she thought. – The Straits Times/Asia News Network