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SCMP Reporter

ANITA Mui is back. After quitting the music business two years ago with a series of sell-out farewell concerts, the original Canto-pop idol returned to the stage in Toronto yesterday with a raunchy two-hour concert in front of more than 4,000 people. Fans flew in from across Canada and even Hong Kong to see the colourful comeback performance.

  ''Hello everybody! I haven't performed in Toronto for two years. I want to know if you miss me?'' Mui asked at the opening of the concert. ''Yes, we do,'' an energetic audience replied.

  By the standard of other Chinese artists' concerts, at least, Mui's performance was outrageous and sexy; in one song, stripped down to a black bra and pants, she wriggled on top of a similarly dressed female back-up dancer, her head on the dancer's breast.

  Things hotted up as she warned the crowd to get ready for her triple-X set and submerged herself, rubbing and caressing, beneath four male dancers.

  Things cooled off in the second half as she dwelled on her slower hit songs.

  Mui told the audience that she started her singing career aged only 41/2 and had always dreamed of having her own stage. Even so, she was serious when she announced her retirement saying that, at the time, she had had enough of performing after 20 years centre stage.

  None of her fans had forgotten her. Two years on and the Toronto concert hall was a 4,200-ticket sell-out in the local Chinese community.

  Plaudits even came from the Toronto government, as the city's mayor, June Rowlands, declared Sunday ''Anita Mui Day'' with a gala dinner to be held this week in her honour.

  But obvious question: was the Toronto concert to herald a major comeback?   Pop idol Leon Lai has already made a public plea for Mui to return full-time to the singing circle. In his, and many other people's opinion, a star of Mui's calibre cannot be replaced.

   During an earlier interview, however, Mui fended off the offers.

  ''I have some friends who really want me to perform [commercially] again. Some people thought that I may perform again for the sake of making money. But I won't. If I do, I won't do it for commercial reasons,'' Mui said.

  She vowed to perform only in the name of charity because she believes it is a way for her to keep in touch with her fans and to practice her Buddhist belief of doing good for other people.

  Her charity work has got off the ground in Toronto with the Anita Mui True Heart Charity Foundation, which has raised funds for the University of Toronto, the United Way of Greater Toronto and the Chinese Community Nursing Home for Greater Toronto.

   Mui announced that her foundation would continue to raise cash for the elderly, disabled and children of all nationalities and races.

  She said her Toronto show was a just to test the water to see what kind of response she could expect from fans.

  Mui added that kicking off in Canada also helped to relieve some of the pressure that would have been on her had she made her comeback in Hong Kong.

  ''[To perform in Hong Kong], the public pressure is too strong to bear. I would see this concert is testing the water. If it goes well, we accumulate some experience and it will be easier to do it again in other places,'' said Mui.

  She said there are plans to hold other charity concerts in Hong Kong and China - the money raised going to help development projects on the mainland.

 ''China is in need of so many things; for example, communication, culture and education. Those drawbacks contributed to her poverty. I learned these things not only by reading newspapers. Eric Tsang and I had some businesses in China. We set up business not simply for making money. We hope to help them through entertainment, importing up to date cultural information.''  Mui said she has decided to devote six months of each year to charity work.

  ''Money is an absolute big problem to me. I had said to myself that before I'm 28, I would save enough of money for my mother, myself and my colleagues to live comfortably for the rest of our lives.

  ''However, the aim fell short, I still need to work to make money. I will devote six months to raise funds for charity and the other three months, I will make records and movies,'' she said.

   There were rumours about Mui's involvement with triads, but she insisted that she kept her distance and did not get involved. She said the Hong Kong entertainment industry lives under the shadow of triad gangs.

  ''I play in movies. Some of the movie companies are operated by triads. Do you think I don't know any of them? I know them, of course, but I have no involvement with them.

  ''Mind you, not every triad member is bad. Some of them are good people. My relationship with triads is that I would not touch them and they will not give trouble to me.

 ''My record with the police is clean. If not, I could not get a good conduct certificate to emigrate.''   During her visit to Toronto, Mui had to return her Canadian immigration papers to the Canadian Immigration Department because she had not spent the six months required in the country in order to maintain her immigrant status.



Raunchy return of Ms Anita Mui