Carol Abroad: Watching "A. Mui Live" and after-thoughts...

I went to watch a solo musical with Katherine today. The musical is called 曼珠沙華 (A. Mui Live), which is about the life of deceased Hong Kong superstar and singer, Anita Mui. The whole musical was a combination of self-story-telling and mini-concert. Singing over 25 of Anita Mui's songs (that everyone grew up in HK is familiar with), the actress who played Anita brought the audience through the various phases of Anita's life.

Anita Mui was before my prime time of listening to HK pops. I was probably no older than 5 or 6 when she became hugely popular and people in HK declared her the "Queen on Stage". I barely knew what pop songs were at that time, not to mention about familiarity of any pop idols. (Faye Wong and Sammi Cheng were closer to my time frame.)

Despite the time gap, I was not unfamiliar with Anita's songs. My mom used to owe almost every single albums of Anita (we are talking about back in the huge "black plastic disc" period). Under my mom's influence, I grew up knowing lots of Anita's songs.

Listening to Anita's familiar old songs in the musical today - even though they were not sung by Anita's original voice - it still gave me a strange warm feeling. I think lots of HK people who love her will share the same feeling. Her songs, her courage, her spirit comforted many people's hearts.

I remember my mom and I saw her concert in San Fran in 2002. At that time she was already fighting fiercely against cancer, but she hid her pain from the audience (no one knew at that time) and performed excellently as a true Queen of the Stage. She totally belonged to the stage. I was mesmerized by her singing, her dance, and ended up standing on the chair and danced with her for the last quarter of the concert...

I know I know, almost all of Cantonese pop songs produced nowadays belong to the "trashy pops" camp (even I agree with that). But a lot of Anita's songs are classics and age-less, like 夕陽之歌, 胭脂扣, 似水流年, 似是故人來, ... etc.

My personal favorite one is called 女人心 (Woman's heart)

誰自願獨立於天地
痛了也讓人看
你我卻須要
在人前被仰望
連造夢亦未敢想像
我會這樣硬朗
但是又怎可使你或我失望

I never saw her as my idol but have always been very impressed by her courage and everlasting battling spirit.

Seeing that she has died for almost 5 years and her fans still remember her and love her as much as when she was alive, I think everyone can agree that she is a true music legend who never disappoints people who love her.