From Aunty to Datuk for veteran actress Lai Meng

VETERAN Malaysian actress Lai Meng, affectionately known as “Lai Meng Yi” (aunty Lai Meng), has received a Datukship from the Sultan of Pahang Sultan Ahmad Shah, major Chinese dailies reported.

Lai Meng, who received the award on Sunday, told Sin Chew Daily that she had never expected the honour.

“I am very happy. As an actress, we do our best on the roles given to us. We must continue to improve,” said the 85-year-old.

Lai Meng said she was glad her movies and drama series were well received by the audiences.

She stressed that she had no plan to retire as she was still very much in love with her job.

Lai Meng made her debut as part of a four-member group in a popular radio comedy sketch in the 1950s. She then rose to fame in the popular TV series Empat Sekawan that ran for two decades and ended in the 1980s.

Lai also gained fame with her portrayal of a mother suffering from Alzheimer’s disease in Singaporean director Jack Neo’s Money No Enough II.

> A jealous husband beat his wife when he found out she still kept her ex-husband’s photos, reported China Press.

The husband found the photos when he was cleaning their house in Cheras, Kuala Lumpur at about 8am on July 19.

The husband chased his 44-year-old wife out from the house after beating her.

He also warned the wife not to tell anything to her family members.

Other News & Views is compiled from the vernacular newspapers (Bahasa Malaysia, Chinese and Tamil dailies). As such, stories are grouped according to the respective language/medium. Where a paragraph begins with a >, it denotes a separate news item.