Hong Kong Mourns "Happy Fruit"

Lydia Shum, also known as 肥肥 (literal translation: fat fat. Of course this sounds horrible in English, but in Chinese it's taken as a term of endearment), is also known as 開心果: Happy Fruit, because she was known for her radiant and contagious smile. She was an actor, a singer, and a game show host (Hong Kong celebrities tend to do absolutely everything), but of course, she was much more than that to Hong Kong people. A woman interviewed on the street on TV put it poetically: "If we were never graced by her legacy, the sun wouldn't be shining as brightly as it does today in Hong Kong." Even I grew up with her presence on my family room TV in Massachusetts, even though I rarely watched the Chinese programming. She passed away about 2 weeks ago of liver cancer, an all too common disease in China (and which nearly claimed the life of my mother if not for the successful surgery).

I've come to realize what people mean when they say that loved ones, although passed away, are still with us as long as we keep them in our hearts. A person is a stream of consciousness, taken individually, but is a thread in the web of a flowing silk cloth. Lydia might be an example of this. She has touched the lives of all Hong Kong people - she is Hong Kong, Hong Kong is her. It is inseparable. Especially for celebrities, who are icons of our culture and our society. But really, this is true for everybody. The more love one affects in society, the stronger and more beautiful the cloth. This is karma.

She will always be with us.