Maggie Cheung Reflects on Difficulties During Father’s Death

In the 1990s, Gigi Lai (黎姿), Ada Choi (蔡少芬), Kenix Kwok (郭可盈), and Maggie Cheung (張可頤) made up the four fadans in Hong Kong television. While Gigi and Kenix have retired from the small screen, Ada and Maggie are still active in the entertainment industry. Unlike Ada, who took her career to Mainland China, Maggie continued to pursue career breakthroughs in Hong Kong after returning from a two-year hiatus in 2007.

Neglected Forming Meaningful Relationships

Maggie recently accepted an interview and expressed her delight in being able to reunite with her fellow costars. Though they all started off in the entertainment industry at the same time, they now diverged into different paths.

Of the three, who did Maggie have the closest relationship with? “Throughout my career, I did not specifically pay attention or put effort into building and maintaining relationships. This is something I neglected. At the time, I only focused on working. When I was done with the day’s work, I would go home to rest and sleep. When I had a break in between filming, I would go on vacation. When I got back, I returned to working and filming again.”

This sole focus on work caused Maggie to neglect relationships and, as a result, she does not have any close female friends. “I do feel a bit regretful about it. I don’t have a single close female friend whom I can go get my nails done with or anything. Even with my mother and my sister, I don’t have any intimate feelings to share. If I do have things that are bothering me, I would deal with them myself.

Thoughts on Children

As the only one out of the four that is unmarried and without children, Maggie expressed, “We talked a lot about the children. All three of them have young kids, except for me, so I just listened. We are from the same generation and grew up together, so there is a level of compatibility. It’s like old schoolmates seeing each other again after graduating. It’s a very precious moment. I hope Gigi will host more functions! Seeing as they are all mothers now, I see the way they look at their children. It’s like their eyes have stars in them and would light up. It looks almost a little crazed!”

On whether this makes her want to become a mother herself, Maggie said, “My younger sister has a little boy and a girl. I dote on them like I would dote on my own children. I will not be too stubborn about only loving my own biological children.”

Dealing with Father’s Sudden Death

Working alongside Tse Kwan Ho (謝君豪) and Elena Kong (江美儀), Maggie will be participating in a stage play where she will face her husband being diagnosed with cancer. Maggie is no stranger to the emotions required from this role. In 2012, her father was diagnosed with late-stage blood cancer. He passed away three days later.

Reflecting on this painful experience, Maggie wistfully said, “There is nothing you can grasp firmly in this world. When a person dies, sometimes, you’re not given any time to prepare. Our entire family was not prepared. My father did not have any symptoms. He has always been very alert. It was only supposed to be a routine medical check-up. Who knew that once he entered the hospital, he would never leave it again? At the time, he went in to check his intestines. The doctor called and told me to come in for a discussion. I didn’t think it was going to be anything serious, so I told my sister to go. When we finally met with the doctor, he said my father had blood cancer and that we should prepare ourselves for what’s to come. Our minds were blank and we didn’t even know where to start, like how should we approach his treatment plan or his care? My father died. He’s no longer on this earth.”

At the time, her father was only 74 years old. In addition to not showing any symptoms, he had always been diligent with routine medical check-ups. “On the first day [after diagnosis], our hearts were very heavy. We didn’t know what to do. On the second day, he was already unconscious. The doctor informed us that he may have brain surgery, but the success rate is only 50 percent.”

Maggie continued, “Fortunately, my Christian faith helped me overcome this difficult time. Afterward, I realized this was actually a good thing. My father left very quickly, so he died without any pain. If he had to go through treatment at 70 years old, it would have been a very difficult and painful journey. Now, he died in his sleep. This is a kind of blessing. It took me a long time to get to this point.”

Source: Ming Pao Weekly

This article is written by Huynh for JayneStars.com.