A SPOTLIGHT severs the dense cigarette smoke, bathing the solitary singer on stage. All eyes are fixated on the petite well-toned figure, scantily clad in spray-on denim hotpants and sexy backless halterneck. The rendition of Anita Mui Yim-fong's Dream Partner is faultless. With closed eyes, the thick husky voice could almost be 'big sister' herself. The accompanying gestures are pure Anita; the confident hand on hip, the flourishing wrist movements, the signature raised-eyebrow stares. Afterwards, the audience breaks into rapturous applause augmented with much whooping and wolf whistles. With a coy curtsey, and an 'oh, stop it' gesture of the hand, Simon jumps off the karaoke podium and skips back to his beefy, tight T-shirted companions.
Anita Mui is a gay icon and her songs rank among the most requested at the Why Not karaoke bar in Causeway Bay. The decor is dingy - Formica tables, folding chairs, foam-filled sofas - but the club boasts an impressive clientele of famous fashion designers, soap opera stars and Canto-pop singers. Early on, a steady stream of performers line up to sing straining Canto ballads of the I-love-you-oh-why-don't-you-love-me genre. By midnight, the tempo increases considerably as the bar gets busier and the more extravagant 'Cinderellas'' take to the stage to play their particular icon.
Gary Wong, a celebrity make-up artist and member of the Why Not club, is an avid Anita aficionado. 'I love her because she's so extravagant and she looks a bit draggy,' he says. 'She's suffered so much in life and then fed this pain into her lyrics. Her boyfriends dump her. She's hurt by one man then fooled by another. Gay men can really relate to this.'' Suffering is a common connection between gay icons. Gay men and women who feel they have suffered in society by hiding their homosexuality, or who have experienced bigotry by being open about it, relate to stars who have publicly shown pain. Songs such as Why Wasn't I Born A Woman?'by Grasshopper are sung with convincing anguish at Why Not. Two Women, a duet sung in both parts by Deanie Yip Duk-han, known locally as Hong Kong's Bette Midler, is another popular role-play rendition. Gay men take it in turns to play the 'mistress''and 'wife' battling over their philanderer.
Battling with the stigma of swimming against the tide in Hong Kong's conformist society, many gays admire celebrities who dare to be different. They feel inspired by stars who have become successful despite, or as a result of, their individuality. Pixie-faced Sandy Lam Yik-lin is one of Hong Kong's most popular gay icons. Half of her concert audience consists of gay men, the other half young girls. Her gay fans say they admire her artistically for being different from most mainstream Canto-pop crooners.
'All gays like Sandy,' confirms Chan Wai-sing, a secondary school teacher. 'She's very different from popular commercial stars like Sally Yeoh. Her image and singing style are special. She sings bluesy, sad stuff which gay guys can relate to. Gays are generally very emotional.' Sandy Lam, like Faye Wong (said to be replacing veteran Lam as the gay icon for a new generation), is an artist whose individuality appeals to both gay men and lesbians. 'I think Sandy Lam's a popular lesbian icon because she's mysterious,' says Charmaine Leung, a design lecturer at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University. 'People are curious about her sexuality. She's never denied that she was gay. Personally I like her because her character is very humble and reserved. Unlike the regular Canto-pop bimbo, Sandy gives the impression of being well-educated.'' While in the West identifiable icons are sometimes openly gay celebrities like Canadian singer kd lang, the trait is rarer in Hong Kong where homosexuality is still relatively taboo. Even heterosexual local stars rarely dare share their sexual status with the public. Those that play for the other team do their utmost to hide it.
Ironically, sexual ambiguity is often enough for a star to be granted gay icon status. 1930s' actresses Greta Garbo and Marlene Dietrich, both popular gay icons, were only rumoured or recently acknowledged to have harboured lesbian tendencies. Madonna is a prime example of a celebrity who has maximised her icon potential by dabbling in lipstick lesbianism. In her infamous coffee table compendium, Sex, which tottered on the tightrope between soft porn and photographic art, Madonna posed in highly provocative positions with Naomi Campbell (who briefly became a lesbian icon herself).