ANITA Mui offered a “gift of life” upon her death by donating her organs, major Chinese dailies reported yesterday.
The death of the 40-year-old Hong Kong pop diva cum actress dominated the front pages of the dailies, with Nanyang Siang Pau and China Press coming out with coloured supplements detailing the star’s road to fame and her losing battle with cervical cancer.
Sin Chew Daily reported that Mui carried an organ donor card with her at all times and she had once said that she wanted to leave the world with “love” by giving up her organs to needy people.
China Press highlighted that even Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Chief Executive Tung Chee Wah acknowledged the contributions of Mui.
Tung was said to have praised Mui as a role model and an icon because she had crafted her career and success through creativity, perseverance and hard work.
A 16-page pullout in Nanyang Siang Pau traced the life of Mui, covering aspects of her childhood, stardom, friendships, love life, films, music, stage appearances and styling, together with lyrics of her famous songs.
The pop diva started in show business at the age of four after the death of her father. She followed her mother and sister to perform in streets, theatres and parks.
She dropped out in lower secondary school to help support the family, by singing from lounge to lounge, when her mother’s pub was razed in a fire and her brother ran away from home and leaving behind huge debts to be settled.
Her turning point came when she won a “new talent” competition in 1982 and within a few years she shot to stardom.
While she achieved great success in her career and had many friends in the show biz circle, Mui’s love life was a failure although rumours had it that she had dated more than 20 men.
Among the men she had great admiration for, were fellow artistes Jackie Chan, Andy Lau and Chow Yun Fatt.
Nanyang Siang Pau reported an appeal to parents by the Malaysian Sundry and Grocery Shop Operators Association to stop sending their underage children to buy cigarettes for them.
Quoting an association spokesman, the paper said some 30,000 of its members were taking part in a campaign to keep the underage away and to abide by the Government’s ban of cigarette sales to children.
The spokesman said some parents were ignorant of the law prohibiting those under the age of 18 from buying cigarettes and risked having their children violating the law by dispatching them to get the supply.
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