As if Anita Mui's (梅艷芳) death wasn't tragic enough, her mother, her manager and her entourage of celebrity friends have turned the aftermath into an unsightly carnival of recriminations and mutual finger-pointing worthy of a Hong Kong B-movie.
Disputes currently rage between all sides over whether she should be cremated or buried and over how her sizable fortune should be divided. Adding the most fuel to the fire is Anita's mother, who has sharply rejected the prospect that her daughter's body be cremated, despite the fact that Anita stated in her will that this was her wish.
PHOTO COURTESY OF SHU-ME
What seems to have really irked Mrs. Mui is the generous amount left behind in the will to Anita's friends and to her manager Marianne Wong (王敏慧). On Tuesday, after exiting the funeral home where her daughter's remains are being kept until a settlement is reached on what to do with her body, Mrs. Mui lashed out at reporters calling Wong "a rat," and vowing to settle accounts with each of Anita's friends, whom she accused of sponging off Anita in life and trying to benefit from her death.
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Anita was famous, not only as a singer and actress, but also as a generous philanthropist who donated to hospitals and other social causes. When accounting irregularities appeared in the proceeds of a charity she and her mother were a part of, the two became estranged and she found herself closer to her friends than to her family. She had already fallen out with her two brothers after several failed business ventures. Anita left no money for her brothers in her will. Yet, despite the distance that grew between Anita and her family, Mrs Mui insists that she have the last say over her daughter's burial and distribution of property. "I want every last penny to be clarified," she is quoted in Wednesday's Apple Daily as saying.
Money was the issue Monday also in Hong Kong when, according to the Associated Press, the father of Canto-pop singer Eason Chan (陳奕迅) was jailed for seven years for accepting bribes worth HK$3 million (US$380,000) when he served as a government engineer. He was also ordered to return HK$2.6 million (US$330,000) to the government.
In Taiwan, black metal rockers Chthonic (閃靈) have just released a new single and VCD called Satan's Horns, which will provide the music during credit rolls in local screenings of the slasher flick Jason vs. Freddy, which is due to be released on Jan. 21.
"The song tells the story of two evil powers clashing. It's pretty violent and strong," said the band's lead singer, who, by chance, also goes by the name Freddy, when reached by Pop Stop on Wednesday. Since "violent" and "strong" sum up Chthonic's music in general, they seem the perfect choice for the project.
After an awkward five months of performances and promotions as S.H., Selina and Hebe of S.H.E., celebrated the return of Ella to the group this week amid much fanfare. Ella is on a low-fat diet to help lose weight after a five-month convalescence at home in Pingtung. She broke her hip in July on the set of a public service video shoot that was intended to display the proper use of the rappel fire escape mechanisms found in many Taiwanese buildings.
Three weeks ago, Pop Stop reported on the on-line poll being carried out by B.A.D. to determine which of the band's members has the best solo on their new album, Starting Point of My Dream (夢的起點). On Sunday, Pop Stop attended the announcement ceremony deep in the bowels of Ximending's 101 building in the company of about 100 screaming teenage girls. Danny won with 29,748 votes. His bandmates Ben and Alex were both within 250 votes
The latest military exercises conducted by the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) last week did not follow the standard Chinese Communist Party (CCP) formula. The US and Taiwan also had different explanations for the war games. Previously the CCP would plan out their large-scale military exercises and wait for an opportunity to dupe the gullible into pinning the blame on someone else for “provoking” Beijing, the most famous being former house speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan in August 2022. Those military exercises could not possibly have been organized in the short lead time that it was known she was coming.
From an anonymous office in a New Delhi mall, matrimonial detective Bhavna Paliwal runs the rule over prospective husbands and wives — a booming industry in India, where younger generations are increasingly choosing love matches over arranged marriage. The tradition of partners being carefully selected by the two families remains hugely popular, but in a country where social customs are changing rapidly, more and more couples are making their own matches. So for some families, the first step when young lovers want to get married is not to call a priest or party planner but a sleuth like Paliwal with high-tech spy
When Portugal returned its colony Macao to China in 1999, coffee shop owner Daniel Chao was a first grader living in a different world. Since then his sleepy hometown has transformed into a bustling gaming hub lined with glittering casinos. Its once quiet streets are now jammed with tourist buses. But the growing wealth of the city dubbed the “Las Vegas of the East” has not brought qualities of sustainable development such as economic diversity and high civic participation. “What was once a relaxed, free place in my childhood has become a place that is crowded and highly commercialized,” said Chao. Macao yesterday
The world has been getting hotter for decades but a sudden and extraordinary surge in heat has sent the climate deeper into uncharted territory — and scientists are still trying to figure out why. Over the past two years, temperature records have been repeatedly shattered by a streak so persistent and puzzling it has tested the best-available scientific predictions about how the climate functions. Scientists are unanimous that burning fossil fuels has largely driven long-term global warming, and that natural climate variability can also influence temperatures one year to the next. But they are still debating what might have contributed to this
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