Andy Hui Outraged by Auction of Anita Mui’s Personal Belongings
December 30 marks the 12th anniversary of music legend Anita Mui‘s (梅艷芳) death. However, unlike previous years where memorials and concerts were held in memory of the late singer, friends and fans were instead surprised by the online auction hosted by HSBC Trustee, the administrator for Anita’s estate. Anita’s personal belongings were posted online to be auctioned from December 10 to December 22. The proceeds are designated to go towards the living expenses of the singer’s mother, 92-year-old Tam Mei Kam (覃美金).
Anita had set aside a monthly allowance of $70,000 HKD to take care of her mother‘s living expenses. Despite this, Mother Mui was evicted from her apartment after failing to pay rent for six months in April.
Many of Anita’s trophies were up for bid, including the award she won in 1982 for TVB’s New Talent Singing Competition, a victory that successfully launched her career in the music industry. However, many friends and fans were enraged to discover that some of Anita’s most personal belongings, such as her undergarments, were also placed online to be auctioned.
As one of Anita’s closest friends, Eric Tsang (曾志偉) advocated for Anita’s friends in the entertainment industry to bid for all of the items in order to properly preserve the last of Anita’s memories and to avoid such situations from recurring.
Singer Andy Hui (許志安), who was one of Anita’s pupils, urged fans not to participate in the auction and bid on the personal items. Andy voiced his anger, “It was handled very wrongly. Hopefully there will be a way to resolve this.”
Source: stheadline.com
This article is written by Huynh for JayneStars.com.
If you can’t live within your means of $10,000USD/month. You seriously have budgeting issues.
@anon Actually, it was more than that. Anita stipulated 70K HKD in her will, but the trustee had to increase it to 150K HKD (approximately $20K USD) in 2009 because the mother refused to leave them alone and kept complaining that the original amount wasn’t enough. Between that time, the mother had actually sold one of the properties that Anita had put under her name and received several million dollars from that, but she still claimed she needed money. She even said at one point that if the trustee doesn’t give her the money, then she will just apply for public assistance and live off the government. Let’s think about it — how long has it been since Anita died? In the 12 years since, Anita’s mother has gotten at minimum 70K HKD each month, sometimes more if the trustee was able to come up with the money (which is one reason why they have to auction Anita’s stuff and sell her properties, since they barely have any money left to maintain the will let alone execute it) — yet she’s still complaining that she’s in the poorhouse. Where has all the money gone? (Anyone want to bet that all the money went to her sons? Anita’s brothers actually have a history of swindling Anita’s money — when she was alive, they used several million dollars of her money to open some bogus company to cheat people, which is why she told them that she never wanted to see them again)
HSBC should be ashamed of themselves. This is going beyond personal boundaries of Anita’s memory.The woman is dead, is there no respect for the dead?. Good for Andy and Eric to speak up on Anita’s behalf. This is disgusting, beyond disgusting.
Is it just me, or does anyone else think that her mother could survive on the monthly income that Anita left her.
@abc123a Of course the mother can, but she refuses to because she wanted all of Anita’s money and was pissed that Anita left it all to the trustee rather than give it to her. If the mother didn’t wage an 8 year legal battle against the estate, contesting Anita’s will and filing appeal upon appeal each time she lost, she would’ve eventually gotten all of Anita’s money in the form of monthly living expenses (it’s just that she’s too blinded by greed to realize what her daughter had done for her)…but instead, all the money has been drained paying for legal fees. There’s also no doubt that Anita’s 2 good-for-nothing older brothers are ‘encouraging’ their mother from behind-the scenes (those 2 bastards probably never held decent jobs their entire lives – even Anita once said in an interview that in their home, the men stayed at home while the women when out and worked to provide for them).
While all of us who loved Anita are heartbroken to see her personal belongings being put up for auction, it’s unfortunately the trustee’s legal right to do so. Eric Tsang and the HKPAG have been in talks with the trustee for the past few weeks, trying to run interference on Anita’s behalf (as I’ve always said, thank goodness Anita has so many friends and fans who love her, since her family obviously doesn’t support her), however Eric said that as of today (the day the auction is supposed to end), there still hasn’t been a complete response from the trustee. If that’s the case, there might not be anything they are able to do except to encourage people NOT to participate. Eric also warned fans to be careful, as he said that a lot of the clothing being auctioned actually DOESN’T belong to Anita – even some of the so-called lingerie is not hers, which is why the HKPAG is hesitant to bid on the stuff. When most of Anita’s awards were put up for auction 3 years ago, Eric and the HKPAG joined forces with Anita’s fan club to buy all the awards back so that they could preserve them in Anita’s memory – doesn’t look like they’ll be doing that this time around (we’ll have to see tomorrow once the auction ends).
Patrick Tam was actually one of the first ones to speak up about the issue, followed by Anita’s former boyfriend Ben Lam, then Anthony Wong, Andy Hui, Michael Miu and Jamie Chik, Anita’s fan club, HKPAG, etc. — everyone is outraged and rightfully so. Though it doesn’t look like they will be able to stop the auction, I do hope that they will be able to find an amicable solution to the issue. At the end of the day, all of us who loved Anita don’t want to see her dignity tarnished in this manner.
@llwy12 Seriously, other than Anita’s late sister, the rest of the family get on my nerves. I really don’t get why they cared so little for their sister, Anita, and her memory. Obviously, all they have is $$$ in their eyes. I wonder what will happen when her mother passes away (she;s now 92), are her brother still able to leech off what is left of Anita’s funds or are they on their own? Maybe that’s why the old lady is trying to get as much money as she can while she is alive so those leeches can survive after she is gone!
@elizabeth At the end of the day, it goes back to the mom and the upbringing. It’s obvious that the mom has always been money-crazy and also hugely biased towards her sons – I mean, why else would she make her 2 daughters start “working” when they were only a few years old (Anita and her sister started making money as part of their mother’s performance troupe when they were only 4 to 5 years old….meanwhile, the brothers were way older, like in their teens already, yet they didn’t have to work – they just sat at home and did nothing while their 2 kid sisters earned money to support them).
It’s definitely sad that Anita and her sister Ann were born into such a horrible family. Though Ann fared a little better in that she married a man who loved her dearly and they had 2 kids together, so at least she was able to experience family love in the last years of her life. Anita on the other hand had no one except her sister (who died a few years before she did) and all her entertainment industry friends (which became her ‘family’) as well as all her fans.
What to do? Mom needs to eat. The undergarments is a bit too much.
@funnlim Looks like bird’s nest and shark fin everyday is not enough. She need to eat food decorated with gold leaves too.
Wonder where all the old lady’s money went. Perhaps medical bills of her son(s ). Cos i think one of them passed away recently from cancer. Btw i read that the undergarments are unworn with price tags still attached. Not exactly a personal intimate item.
@isay I had heard that too – though not sure if the brother had died, as the last I heard was that he had cancer. But even if the money was used for his medical expenses, that’s still too much. If the brother wasn’t working, most likely he was on some type of government assistance which means that he would’ve gotten help with medical fees (at least part of the fees). And it still doesn’t make sense, as the cancer thing was later – from the moment Anita died, the mother and brothers were already after her money. My guess is that they probably squandered away all the money that the mother got the first couple years and then when the medical condition came up, they spent whatever they had left on that….though I had also read that the mother lives lavishly, which is why she needs so much money to maintain her lifestyle.
Ironically, with this whole auction thing, the mother is the one squawking the loudest, giving her whole sob story again about how the trustee would rather auction all the items instead of giving them to her (why, so she can turn around and sell them herself?) – yet the reason why the trustee is doing the auction in the first place is fulfill the terms of Anita’s will and pay for HER living expenses.
Anthony Wong mentioned someone sold their awards for money during the tvb award presentation. So this is what he was babbbling – “Many of Anita’s trophies were up for bid, including the award she won in 1982 for TVB’s New Talent Singing Competition”?
From what I read on wiki, it seems a good chunk of Mama Mui’s money was spent on legal fees and appeals. I’m not sure how much that would cost but it doesn’t seem like it’d be cheap. And while Mama Mui was battling for her daughter’s entire fortune, she neglected her own property and thus was thrown out for not paying sufficient fees. Coupled that with constant legal fees, she couldn’t break even. And her kids are frequently sick, i.e. cancer seems to run in the family and most likely living and siphoning money from her accounts. Anita’s will stated that once Mama Mui dies, her money will go towards her nieces and nephews and Mama Mui’s properties will be directly donated to a Buddhist Association. I mean…if you were Mama Mui & you know your precious sons will not see a dime of that money when you’re dead (which, at age 92, is a very likely thing to occur), you would probably put all your effort into obtaining as much wealth as possible to pass it onto your sons as well. I can see her line of reasoning with this but that doesn’t mean I agree with it.
Parenting is hard. Maybe even if she sees this situation for what it is, i dont think she can really disown her kids and not care for them. Esp her sons who she favors & rely on for care & support in her old age.
Older Asians tend to be greedier and more selfish. I think it’s the period they grew up in. Scarcity creates monsters out of all of us.
Wow. It really showed just how good and strong Anita was. She was brought up biasedly by her mum, was working since very young age. But she still take care of her mum and family when she was alive. Now that she was gone for so long, mum still trying to drain out her assets. Haiz…. it just seems so wrong.