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ASIA’s richest woman Nina Wang was given an extravagant funeral
send-off Wednesday attended by many of Hong Kong’s rich and
powerful, amid feverish speculation over who will inherit her
fortune.
Shanghai-born Wang, who was famously frugal,
died of cancer aged 69 earlier this month with an estate estimated
to be worth at least US$4.2 billion.
She left no heirs, and some newspapers here have
speculated she might have left all or a large part of her wealth to
her personal fortune-teller.
Wang’s funeral, organized by a committee of 45
businessmen and politicians including Asia’s richest man, Li Ka-Shing,
was shrouded in secrecy. Reporters were barred from the venue in
Hong Kong before the ceremony.
Scores of people watched from across the street
as the hearse carrying her body left for the crematorium, festooned
with white orchids and with red roses arranged in heart shapes
placed in the front and back.
After a brief ceremony at the crematorium,
Wang’s godson Anthony Cheung emerged in tears holding a portrait
of Wang in his hands.
He was accompanied by her other family members
and surrounded by some 50 press photographers.
Wang’s family had booked the entire first
floor of the sprawling funeral home.
Local press said her family had spent millions
of Hong Kong dollars on flowers for the funeral ceremony, and a sea
of floral wreaths accumulated outside and inside the funeral home.
The hall was decorated in red and white, her
favorite colors, although red is traditionally symbolic of
celebrations like weddings.
The whole front wall of the hall was covered in
white orchids, white lilies, peonies and white chrysanthemums. A
portrait of Wang was placed in the middle of more than 1,000 red
roses in the shape of a heart, above a similarly garlanded altar.
A 10-foot (3-meter) memorial plaque lined with
white chrysanthemums was placed on top of the portrait. Next to it,
a television flickered with TV footage of the tycoon.
--AFP
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