Anita Mui, her glittering movie and musical career and her legacy, 20 years after her untimely death

Anita Mui, her glittering movie and musical career and her legacy, 20 years after her untimely death

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For her nearly 50 acting credits, Mui received 11 acting awards. The most well-known were her best actress titles for Stanley Kwan Kam-pang’s Rouge (1988) at the Hong Kong Film Awards and the Golden Horse Awards – considered the Oscars of Chinese-language film at the time.
Mui (left) and two other contestants in the First New Talent Singing Awards in 1982. Photo: SCMP

December 30 marks 20 years since her death at 40 from respiratory complications caused by cervical cancer.

Anita Mui’s last wish: don’t cry for me, let me go in peace — SCMP archive

Mui devoted much of her time to social activism and philanthropy. She often appeared in events to support charities, and donated to and was an ambassador for the international development charity Oxfam.

In 1989, alongside other stars, Mui attended a rally and concert in Hong Kong to raise funds for the leaders of the student protests that spring in Tiananmen Square, Beijing, and to call for democracy.

A still from Rouge, starring Mui and Leslie Cheung Kwok-wing. Photo: Golden Harvest

As such, she dropped out of Kwan’s Shanghai-filmed Center Stage (1991), a biopic of Chinese silent film star Ruan Lingyu. The director initially developed the production around Mui, as he thought Mui looked like Ruan from certain angles.

Mui also used her own money to help dissidents escape China via an underground network called Operation Yellow Bird.
Mui at a Hong Kong hotel promoting a concert in 2003. Photo: AP

In 1993, Mui formed the Anita Mui True Heart Charity Foundation to support public hospitals, old people’s homes and children’s welfare.

In 1994, through a fundraising dinner, she raised HK$7.5 million, of which HK$2 million was donated to the Queen Mary Hospital’s musculoskeletal reconstruction programme. Two years later, the hospital established a new orthopaedic operating theatre in her name. Mui was present at the opening ceremony.

Mui presenting during the 39th Golden Horse Awards in Taiwan in 2002. Photo: AFP

Mui was a performer for almost her entire life – she spent most of her childhood and youth performing in small Hong Kong theatres, cabarets and lounges to contribute to her family’s finances.

It seemed only fitting that in 2001, she was the first woman elected president of the Hong Kong Performing Artistes Guild, which was very active in social outreach during her two-year tenure.

In 2002, she called for a boycott of a Hong Kong tabloid magazine for publishing nude photographs purported to be of Carina Lau Ka-ling, which were reportedly taken when the actress was kidnapped by a gang for turning down a role in a film funded by a triad crime gang.
Mui at one of her last concerts in Hong Kong in 2003. Photo: Reuters

In 2003, during the Sars – severe acute respiratory syndrome – outbreak in Hong Kong, Mui organised a concert to raise funds for patients and children in affected families.

Mui’s work ethic was tireless – she gave her final concert six weeks before her death and, although already ill, accepted a major role in Chinese filmmaker Zhang Yimou’s 2004 movie House of Flying Daggers. After repeated objections from her friends and doctors because of her declining health, she resigned from the production.

After Mui’s death, Zhang decided to alter the script rather than find a replacement. The role of the rebel leader she played was supplemented by Song Dandan. Zhang dedicated the film to Mui’s memory.

Mui speaking at a press conference at a hotel in Hong Kong in 2003. Photo: AFP
Mui’s funeral in January 2004 was attended by Wu’er Kaixi, a former Tiananmen Square student protest leader of Uygur heritage who now lives in exile as a dissident; the late Hong Kong pro-democracy politician Szeto Wah; and Hong Kong actors and singers including Jacky Cheung Hok-yau, Andy Hui Chi-on and Nicholas Tse Ting-fung.

Hong Kong’s chief executive at the time, Tung Chee-hwa, and Li Gang – the then-deputy director of the Chinese government’s Hong Kong liaison office – sent wreaths.

Mui’s pallbearers included actor Tony Leung Chiu-wai, Taiwanese singer-songwriter David Tao Zee and Hong Kong fashion designer Eddie Lau Pui-kai. It was estimated that 3,000 fans gathered outside the funeral service to bid farewell to the singer.
Andy Lau Tak-wah at the funeral for Mui in 2004. Photo: SCMP
Mui at a pro-democracy march in Wan Chai in My 1989. Photo: SCMP

The Hong Kong Heritage Museum in Sha Tin, in the New Territories, is staging an exhibition, “Timeless Diva: Anita Mui”, to mark the 20th anniversary of her death. It includes, as well as film stills, magazine covers, sketches and video footage, several items from her career not exhibited previously, including records, stage costumes and awards.

“Timeless Diva: Anita Mui”, Hong Kong Heritage Museum, 1 Man Lam Road, Sha Tin, Mon, Wednesday-Friday, 10am-6pm, Saturday-Sunday and public holidays, 10am-7pm, closed on Tue. Until September 2, 2024. Free admission.

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