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Chinachem

The 'Little Sweetie' who lived a comic-book life

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Martin Wong

Staff and tenants of the Chinachem Golden Plaza will not be able to easily forget Nina Wang - each day they file through the building's lift lobby past an imposingly cute pig-tailed statue of a cartoon character of the flamboyant businesswoman.

Nicknamed 'Little Sweetie', Ms Wang was a fan of 1970s comic-book character called 'Candy Candy', created by Japanese illustrator Yumiko Igarashi.

She asked Igarashi to create another comic character called Nina Nina, this time based on her own life.

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The result was a comic book that spanned her life from a five-year-old girl in Shanghai to her love affair and marriage to Teddy Wang, as well as a life-sized statue in a Marilyn Monroe pose in the lobby of Chinachem's headquarters in Mody Road.

After passing by the statue, which stands on a glass pedestal, yesterday staff members ran the gauntlet of photographers and reporters who wanted to know what they had thought of their boss.

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'Very kind,' was a common response from staff members, who admitted they had never met her.

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