Holy & Dangerous

In late May, Dr. Stephen Lai, a Hong Kong dermatologist and the younger brother of actress Gigi Lai, was in a serious car accident in which he suffered major injuries. Even now, two months later, he’s still hospitalized, has undergone brain surgery, and is in a minimally conscious state. Since her brother’s accident, Gigi has taken a leave of absence from filming the TVB drama series Jewel’s Splendor (aka The Gem of Life) to care for him.

The tabloid press made a big deal of this because Gigi was the ostensible star of the series and her absence would cause numerous production complications, including re-arranged filming schedules for the cast and crew. This delay generated some debate on the internet as well, with one side praising Gigi for her devotion to her brother, and another side criticizing her for holding up production, jacking up costs, and inconveniencing the general viewing public. They also criticized TVB for their failure to boot her off the show and re-cast her role.

As you can tell, netizens can be a fairly hard-bitten lot.

TVB was probably in a Catch-22 situation because Gigi had filmed enough scenes that re-casting and re-shooting would be just as costly as delaying production and re-scheduling the filming of Gigi’s scenes. Plus, over the years, TVB has promoted her to such a degree that she’s now one of TVB’s most popular actresses, and they would boot her from the series at their peril. As powerful and monopolistic as TVB is, it’s still a good idea to maintain good relations with powerful/popular actors and actresses.

TVB executive Virginia Lok has kept close tabs on the situation and has been saying all the rights things, trying to downplay the cost of delays, asserting the concern of the entire cast and crew for Gigi’s situation, and stating that the most important thing is the recovery of Gigi’s brother. Over the past few months, this has been how TVB was spinning the circumstances to its advantage. Interestingly, amidst all this damage control, the name of one of Gigi’s co-stars kept popping up in the press coverage of the situation…

1. TVB Executive Virginia Lok: “Without everyone’s support and SMS text messages, [Gigi] would not have been able to hang in there. Co-star, Ada Choi Siu Fun will also be praying for Gigi’s brother.” 6/15/07 Oriental Daily (Translation by Jaynestars)

2. Lok again: “Due to Gigi’s family situation, it was necessary to readjust her onscreen time. Ada Choi Siu Fun met with Gigi to give her support through this difficult situation.” 7/21/07 Ming Pao (Translation by Jaynestars)

3. [Lok] expressed that Gigi has lost quite a bit of weight recently, but emotions wise she is slowly returning to normal, and had met up with Ada Choi. 7/27/07 The Sun (Translation by blotty)

4. Gigi, herself: I received numerous SMS and calls, especially [from] Ada Choi. She called me as soon as she found out, and then onwards, on every other day she would call me. She is one of my little angels. 7/27/07 Apple Daily (Translation by Paige)

This would not be the first time Ada Choi has proactively reached out to friends/colleagues in the industry to offer them care and comfort in their times of need. When Stephen Ma’s mother was suffering from cancer during the filming of Healing Hands, co-star Ada Choi was there to help him bear his sorrows. When Catherine Hung was struggling over her decision to keep her baby and raise him as a single parent, Ada Choi was there to offer support and guidance, subsequently becoming the child’s godmother. And now, when Gigi Lai’s brother, a rising young doctor whom Lai put through medical school, was seriously injured in a car accident, who do you think was there, reaching out with concern and kindness? That’s right: Ada Choi.

Now I’m pretty sure there were other family members, friends, and colleagues that reached out to Gigi and her brother in this time of need, but for some reason, the name that was most often highlighted in news reports was Ada Choi’s. Why, I have no idea. All I know is that Ada Choi simply has an enormous capacity for compassion, which was deepened through her own personal sufferings. These difficulties were so great at one point that she contemplated suicide before timely divine intervention pulled her back from the brink (at that very moment, no less), revolutionized her existence, and unleashed a wellspring of practical kindness that has flowed to those in need ever since.

It’s now flowing to Gigi Lai, which is somewhat ironic since the HK tabloids had tried to imply that Ada harbored some animosity towards Gigi. I think this rumor was fueled by a number of things: (1) Gigi’s rise to popularity at TVB; (2) Ada’s lowered profile/prominence in Hong Kong due to increased filming in the Mainland; and, perhaps relatedly, (3) Moiselle’s decision to “dump” Ada, who had served as the HK fashion label’s main spokesmodel since the late 1990s. Instead, Moiselle retained Gigi, who had only been with them for the last three years, as their sole HK spokesmodel.

But whatever animosity or jealousy Ada Choi may have felt towards Gig Lai (if any), it apparently dissipated after the tragedy that befell Gigi’s brother. All that was left was a colleague – a human being – in need, and Ada Choi, exemplifying the best qualities of a true Christian, responded accordingly.

God bless her for that.

(Thoughts and prayers to the Lais, too.)