From Anita Mui to Leslie Cheung, a new generation of fans are bringing life to Hong Kong’s old stars on social media
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- On October 10, Anita Mui Yim-fong would have been 58 years old, but even 18 years after her death, one of her young fans talks about writing a book and making spaces on Instagram and Telegram to make sure the star is not forgotten
Anita Mui is one of the biggest singers from Canto-pop’s golden era, though she died of cancer at the age of 40. Photo: SCMPUnlike many of her peers, Lau Cing has not fallen head over heels for young boy bands like Mirror and BTS.
Instead, the 21-year-old is a mega fan of Hong Kong singers from the 1970s and 1980s – so much so that she has written a book about those stars, organised talks to promote the music, and formed online groups for people who share her passion.
Lau was born in 1999, towards the end of Canto-pop’s golden era, which was filled with legendary singers such as Leslie Cheung Kwok-wing, Samuel Hui Koon-kit and – Lau’s favourite – Anita Mui Yim-fong.
“Being a fan of someone is a blessing because we can find comfort in something we love,” said Lau, who asked to be identified by her nickname, which means “remembering one’s feelings in the moment” in Chinese.
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Lau, who just graduated from Central Saint Martins in London this year, was first introduced to Mui’s music when she was 16. Her teachers at the time asked her to do an art assignment about old Canto-pop.
So she watched a Hong Kong film released in 1988, Rouge, starring Mui and Cheung, and was immediately captivated. Mui played a ghost searching for her lover, and Lau was so mesmerised by the star’s beauty and charm that she decided to learn more about the actress.
After weeks of research, Lau realised it was not just Mui’s music and movies that charmed her fans.
In November 2003, a few months after announcing her cancer diagnosis at the age of 40, Mui held a concert series in Hong Kong. Watching a video from the event, the scene that struck Lau most was when Mui walked through a church door, wearing a white wedding gown.
The singer told her fans, “I thought I would’ve been married ... but I have nothing. What do I have? You guys.”
A month after the concert, Mui passed away.
“It was hard to imagine how a person could have such strong willpower to finish eight concerts, and even fly to Japan for a photo shoot, as her health was deteriorating,” Lau explained.
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All too often, Lau’s peers challenged her about why she was into such old music. She even recalled someone asking her, “Why do you enjoy dead people’s songs?”
Some said the music was for old people, while others took pride in not knowing any old songs as a way of showing they were ahead of the trends, Lau said.
But she disagreed with their mindset: “You cannot find another Leslie Cheung or Anita Mui. They are the names Hongkongers will be proud of forever.”
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But even if today’s teens want to know more about classic Hong Kong stars, it is not an easy task. Many Facebook fan pages stopped running some years ago. Many loyal fans are, understandably, elderly themselves.
Frustrated with the lack of fan pages, Lau started an Instagram account called Lau Cing four years ago.
“I wanted to share the charm of the old singers with my peers. And I knew there had to be other teens like me who were obsessed with singers from that era,” she said.
And she was right. Through the page, she soon bonded with other young fans, and her Instagram page now has about 6,000 followers. She started a Telegram group that has 90 members – 40 of them have started their own Instagram pages dedicated to their idols. The youngest member in this community is just 13.
Last year, Lau published her first book introducing millennials to old Hong Kong stars. She spent one and a half years doing research on the singers, interviewing old and young fans, and drawing illustrations. The book focuses on stories between stars and their fans, and how young people like Lau have fallen in love with the music.
Because singers such as Mui and Cheung had already passed, looking into their lives sometimes felt like a “detective’s game”, Lau said.
She and other fans often had to fact-check information they received, such as whether Mui really loved chicken wings and Coca Cola. Lau would flip through newspaper clippings, watch interviews, and ask older fans who had actually met the singers.
“At the end of the day, we still don’t know if our answers are correct. After all, we cannot ask the artists,” she said.
“We are chasing unreachable stars. We are not loving a real person, and they are living in other people’s memories and in our imaginations.”
Click here to download a printable worksheet with questions and exercises about this story. Answers are on the second page of the document.