Low-key funeral for Chow Yun Fat's mother, who dies at 98

Two days after Aaron Kwok held a funeral for his mother on Thursday (March 5), his Project Gutenberg (2018) co-star Chow Yun Fat also said his last farewell to his mother.

Chow's mother Chan Lai Fong, who died in her sleep at the age of 98 on Feb 13, was cremated on Saturday (March 7), his wife Jasmine Tan told Hong Kong's Apple Daily.

"She had an early dinner before she went to sleep on the night of her passing," Ms Tan, a Singaporean, said. "The domestic helper called us after there was no response from her."

She added that her husband Chow was fine as he has been mentally prepared.

According to the Hong Kong media, Madam Chan was hospitalised last December for ailments common to the elderly. Chow, 64, visited her in hospital then and told the media his mother has to take liquid food due to her age, and would be discharged from hospital if she can eat porridge.

He added then that his mother was still very alert and even told him to go home.

Ms Tan said Chow has always been a low-key person, and due to the coronavirus outbreak, he invited only close relatives to the funeral held on Saturday morning and did not invite friends from the entertainment industry.

Madam Chan had also mentioned before that she would prefer her children to be filial to her when she was alive, and a grand funeral would be useless to her.

Chow, being a filial son, held a simple funeral according to his mother's wishes.

Ms Tan said the ashes of Madam Chan would be placed together with those of Chow's father at Lamma Island, their family home.

She said that this is the second death in her family in less than a month, as her 70-year-old uncle in Singapore died of a heart attack on Feb 19.

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Madam Chan, who married Chow's father when she was 17, won an Outstanding Mother award at the World Outstanding Chinese Awards in 2008. She said humbly when she received the award that she told her children not to do any harm to society when they went to work in society.

She raised her four children almost single-handedly as Chow's father worked on a tanker and was out at sea most of the time.

Chow is the third of her four children, and his elder sister Chow Chung Ling is a famous photographer in Hong Kong. Chow would call his mother almost every day, and would meet her for tea every week.

Madam Chan was also very proud of Chow and would watch all his movies. Chow is famous for acting in movies such as A Better Tomorrow trilogy (1986 to 1989), God Of Gamblers movies (1989, 1994) and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000).

Chow starred in Project Gutenberg with Kwok, with both nominated for Best Actor for the movie at the Hong Kong Film Awards in 2019. Chow will next appear in the movie Be Water, My Friend.

This article was first published in The Straits Times. Permission required for reproduction.