Bad Girl, Femme Fatale, and the Androgynous Body: Cantopop Queen Anita Mui’s Gender Game

Abstract

This article examines the career of the Hong Kong popular singer, Anita Mui (1963–2003), widely known as the Cantopop Queen throughout the Chinese-speaking world, thanks to her subversive gender politics and “ever-changing” stage persona. Focusing on how Mui and her collaborators co-constructed her star image, the article draws attention to Mui’s emerging authorship and subjectivity, and the inherent tension and contradictions in the diva’s multi-faceted “performances” which culminated in the star text called “Anita Mui.”