The singer, trained in the Italian bel canto tradition, continues to inspire with her professionalism and passion for the art form, and is surely one of the world’s oldest sopranos to regularly perform on stage.

On July 23, she twisted her ankle right before the Hong Kong Symphonia concert “Romantic Concerto Evening” at the Hong Kong City Hall. Kiang was the special guest and scheduled to sing “Mi Chiamano Mimi” from the Puccini opera La bohème.

Calling off at the last minute was unimaginable, she says, and she insisted on being pushed onto the stage in a wheelchair.

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“The programme had been confirmed. It wouldn’t have worked with an entire chunk of it missing,” she says. “Besides, I injured my ankle, not my throat.”

While, as a professional opera singer, she would always prefer to sing standing up, “we have to be able to sing even if we are lying down”, she says.

Born and raised in Shanghai, Kiang has loved singing ever since she was young. She and her three siblings would often sing duets or quartets together just for fun, she recalls.

However, she first found fame in another art form, and by chance.

In 1950, just after the founding of the People’s Republic of China, Kiang moved to Hong Kong with her husband and two children.

One day, the then 22-year-old went to visit her husband at work and was spotted by someone from a film-production company in the same office building in Central, who urged her to audition for the 1952 film The Dividing Wall. She decided to go for it.

“I wasn’t doing anything anyway,” she shrugs.

She won the role and subsequently became a regular in Hong Kong cinema in the 1950s, with leading roles in films such as A Golden Silk Bird (1953) and The True Story of Ah Q (1958).

She had stumbled into a successful acting career, but her true passion still lay in singing.

In 1957, she went abroad to study bel canto at the Conservatorio Santa Cecilia, a state music school in Rome, Italy. In 1959, she became the first Chinese person to perform as the lead in Madama Butterfly at the capital’s opera house, Teatro dell’Opera di Roma.

After three years in Italy, she returned to Hong Kong with renewed purpose and quickly found success performing as a soprano. Students flocked to her, and she began teaching in her early 30s.

“Once I started teaching, I found it quite enjoyable.” Kiang says. “Every student has their strengths and weaknesses, which I must adapt my teaching for.

“The songs I teach come in seven different languages – Chinese, English, Italian, German, French, Spanish and Latin – and I sing in two more: Russian and Czech.”

She is modest about her language proficiency, saying she only knows enough to sing in. Still, she admits that she can speak perfectly well in Cantonese, Mandarin, Shanghainese, English and Italian.

Kiang didn’t set out to train pop stars and has spent most of her career of more than 60 years teaching ordinary amateurs. Yet, some of the city’s most famous singers count among her alumni of over 1,000 students, including Deanie Ip, Anthony Wong, Sandy Lam Yilin, Elvina Kong Yan-yin, Leon Lai Ming and Ivana Wong.

Many of Kiang’s classes took place at the Hong Kong Baptist University, the Chinese University of Hong Kong and the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts (HKAPA). The current head of vocal studies at the HKAPA was once a student of hers.

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She is performing again soon: on August 3, to celebrate her 95th birthday and also the 19th anniversary of the Ella Kiang Singers, which she founded in 2004 with a group of passionate students who lovingly refer to her as “Madam Kiang”.

Aside from being a major pillar in Hong Kong’s music industry and opera scene, Kiang’s life story is one of incredible talent, strength and adaptability. Today, she is still teaching every week.

“A Tribute to Opera Legend – Madam Ella Kiang 95th Birthday Concert” by the Ella Kiang Singers, Hong Kong City Hall Concert Hall, 5 Edinburgh Place, Central, August 3, 7.30pm