Taiwanese pop diva Fong Fei-fei (鳳飛飛), whose legacy includes 81 albums and numerous popular singles, died of lung cancer in Hong Kong on Jan. 3, a representative confirmed yesterday. She was 58.
Lawyer Chiang Yen-wei (江燕偉) said the singer’s body has been cremated and the urn placed at a Fokuangshan-affiliated temple in Dasi Township (大溪), Taoyuan County, where Fong was born.
According to Fong’s official Web site, the singer had thanked her fans for supporting her throughout her career.
Photo: CNA
“I have lived a happy and wonderful life,” Fong said. “Thank you for being by my side all this time, my brothers and sisters. As for the songs I never got to sing in this life, I will sing them to you in my next life.”
The Web site said that Fong had insisted on personally signing birthday and New Year cards for fans, even during the last month of her life.
Chiang said Fong’s death had only been announced now because she wanted a low-key funeral.
“It [her death] happened at a time that was very close to the Lunar New Year holiday,” he said. “Fong was a very considerate person and wanted to keep everything low-key. She insisted that we not make an announcement until after the funeral was over. We hope fans will understand why we chose to handle the matter in this way.”
Chiang said that Fong canceled a concert in June last year after finding something wrong with her vocal cords.
After comprehensive examinations, she was diagnosed with lung cancer, which had already affected her vocal cords, he said.
Fong apologized to her fans for canceling the concert at the last minute, but said that doctors had recommended she rest for a year to recuperate.
Born Lin Chiu-luan (林秋鸞) in August 1953, Fong’s talent was first discovered at a singing contest in 1968.
Some of her popular songs include Wish You Happiness (祝妳幸福), I am a Cloud (我是一片雲), The Wild Goose on the Wing (雁兒在林梢) and When I Heard the Applause (掌聲響起).
Fong was known as the “Queen of Hats,” because she wore a different hat every time she performed.
Her unique voice and style made her a popular figure for other singers to imitate.
In addition to singing, Fong was also cast in several movies and TV dramas in the 1970s and 1980s and hosted a number of entertainment shows.
In 1980, she married Hong Kong businessman Zhao Hongqi (趙宏琦), who died of lung cancer in 2009 at the age of 70.
AIR SUPPORT: The Ministry of National Defense thanked the US for the delivery, adding that it was an indicator of the White House’s commitment to the Taiwan Relations Act Deputy Minister of National Defense Po Horng-huei (柏鴻輝) and Representative to the US Alexander Yui on Friday attended a delivery ceremony for the first of Taiwan’s long-awaited 66 F-16C/D Block 70 jets at a Lockheed Martin Corp factory in Greenville, South Carolina. “We are so proud to be the global home of the F-16 and to support Taiwan’s air defense capabilities,” US Representative William Timmons wrote on X, alongside a photograph of Taiwanese and US officials at the event. The F-16C/D Block 70 jets Taiwan ordered have the same capabilities as aircraft that had been upgraded to F-16Vs. The batch of Lockheed Martin
GRIDLOCK: The National Fire Agency’s Special Search and Rescue team is on standby to travel to the countries to help out with the rescue effort A powerful earthquake rocked Myanmar and neighboring Thailand yesterday, killing at least three people in Bangkok and burying dozens when a high-rise building under construction collapsed. Footage shared on social media from Myanmar’s second-largest city showed widespread destruction, raising fears that many were trapped under the rubble or killed. The magnitude 7.7 earthquake, with an epicenter near Mandalay in Myanmar, struck at midday and was followed by a strong magnitude 6.4 aftershock. The extent of death, injury and destruction — especially in Myanmar, which is embroiled in a civil war and where information is tightly controlled at the best of times —
China's military today said it began joint army, navy and rocket force exercises around Taiwan to "serve as a stern warning and powerful deterrent against Taiwanese independence," calling President William Lai (賴清德) a "parasite." The exercises come after Lai called Beijing a "foreign hostile force" last month. More than 10 Chinese military ships approached close to Taiwan's 24 nautical mile (44.4km) contiguous zone this morning and Taiwan sent its own warships to respond, two senior Taiwanese officials said. Taiwan has not yet detected any live fire by the Chinese military so far, one of the officials said. The drills took place after US Secretary
THUGGISH BEHAVIOR: Encouraging people to report independence supporters is another intimidation tactic that threatens cross-strait peace, the state department said China setting up an online system for reporting “Taiwanese independence” advocates is an “irresponsible and reprehensible” act, a US government spokesperson said on Friday. “China’s call for private individuals to report on alleged ‘persecution or suppression’ by supposed ‘Taiwan independence henchmen and accomplices’ is irresponsible and reprehensible,” an unnamed US Department of State spokesperson told the Central News Agency in an e-mail. The move is part of Beijing’s “intimidation campaign” against Taiwan and its supporters, and is “threatening free speech around the world, destabilizing the Indo-Pacific region, and deliberately eroding the cross-strait status quo,” the spokesperson said. The Chinese Communist Party’s “threats
RSS