Lydia Shum(1945-2008)

With her signature wing-tip frame coke bottle glasses and imposing coif, 'Zaftig' TV-movie comedienne and celebrity personality Lydia Shum also known as 'Ah-Fay' to her fans stands out as one of the most recognizable and endearing entertainment icons in Hong Kong society whose celebrity ubiquity has spanned nearly 5 decades since she began her career in the early 60s as a teenage contract actress with Shaw Brothers studios. Like many within the minority Shanghai expatriate community residing in Hong Kong during the days of the crown colony, Lydia's versatility landed her supporting roles throughout her vast public career in both Cantonese and Mandarin dialect film and television often times playing pillow-talk girlfriends, classmates, sidekicks, siblings, handmaidens, chorus girls, bridesmaids and of course visual comic foil for literally the entire cavalcade of Hong Kong's Golden Age leading ladies including Connie Chan, Li Hua Li, Bo-Bo Fung, Heung-Kam Lee, Lily Ho, Meg Lam, Lin-Lin Li, Josephine Siao, Nancy Sit, Ming-Chuen Wang and Tina Ti before later graduating to TV award/variety show MCs and serials roles while still maintaining her staple of mostly big-screen Cantonese parts playing nosy landladies, pampered heiresses, neurotic matrons and doting mothers alongside Do Do Cheng, Maggie Cheung, Sylvia Chang Vivian Chow, Sharla Cheung, Cora Miao Sandra Ng, Teresa Sun-Kwan Mo, Anita Mui and Anita Yuen (not to mention Lydia being their fourth wind slot for their Mahjong games after work) during the high-profile commercial success of the Hong Kong New Wave output through the 1990s. The history of celebrity girl power in the Hong Kong entertainment scene would not be complete without the mention of Lydia Shum.