Teresa Teng: five things you may not know about Taiwanese singer remembered with Google Doodle to mark her 65th birthday

The much-loved performer known for songs such as The Moon Represents My Heart died of an asthma attack in 1995 in Thailand; she would have been 65 on January 29

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Google Doodle are celebrating what would have been singer Teresa Teng's 65th birthday. Photo: courtesy of Google

Published: 12:15pm, 29 Jan 2018Updated: 11:06am, 9 Feb 2018

Google Doodle recently marked what would have been the 65th birthday of late Taiwanese singer Teresa Teng with an image of her performing in front of a full moon. Teng died suddenly on January 29, 1995, of an asthma attack while holidaying in Chiang Mai, Thailand, aged 42.

Teng had a huge fan base in Asia, singing folk songs and love ballads in Mandarin, Cantonese, Japanese and English, and scoring hits with songs such as The Moon Represents My Heart and When Will You Return?

A man holds a rose in front of Teresa Teng's picture during memorial service to commemorate the 62nd birthday of the late pop singer Teresa Teng. Photo: Nora Tam

Her songs were often used as political tools when cross-strait relations became tense.

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Hongkongers also loved her: the 1996 Hong Kong film Comrades: Almost a Love Story, directed by Peter Chan, features the legacy of Teng in a subplot. The film won best picture at award ceremonies in Hong Kong and Taiwan, and at the Seattle International Film Festival.

She has also been immortalised with a wax statue at Madame Tussauds, and there’s no escaping the singer’s face at the Teresa New Life Coffee Shop in Tsim Sha Tsui.