Feng Fei Fei: Taiwan Singer Keeps Her Own Death a Secret

Taiwanese pop idol Feng Fei Fei (also spelled Fong Fei Fei) has died after a battle with lung cancer, her representatves announced on Tuesday.

“I have lived a happy and wonderful life,” Feng said posthumously on her Web site. “Thank you for being by my side all this time, my brothers and sisters. As for the songs I never got to sing in this life, I will sing them to you in my next life.”

The Hong Kong-based singer actually died over a month ago -- on Jan. 3 -- but she asked her lawyers to keep her death a secret until after the Chinese New Year's celebrations, fearing it would bring bad luck to her fans.

“It [her death] happened at a time that was very close to the Lunar New Year holiday,” her lawyer Lawyer Chiang Yen-wei told the Taipei Times.

“Fong was a very considerate person and wanted to keep everything low-key. She insisted that we not make an announcement until after the funeral was over. We hope fans will understand why we chose to handle the matter in this way.”

Her death was even momentarily kept secret from her mother and brother.

Taiwanese fans were saddened by the news, which came only days after the death of American singer Whitney Houston. While the two performers were worlds apart, their legacies and popularity were parallel in their home nations.

We have lost another great diva. R.I.P. Feng Fei Fei, commented Singaporean singer Tanya Chua on her blog.

Like Houston, she had multiple awards for her music, and social networking sites erupted with news of her passing, which was even mourned by Taiwan’s president, Ma Ying-jeou.

Additionally, Premier Sean Chen has asked Government Information Office to honor Feng's contributions to Taiwanese culture, and Wu Chih-yang, the commissioner of her native Taoyuan county, said that he would organize a memorial concert and erect a statue of her in a town park, Taipei Times reported.

In her lifetime, Feng produced an incredible 81 albums, considerably more than Houston, who released six studio albums, two soundtracks and a Christmas album.

Fong's remains were cremated and brought to Taiwan, where is she buried next to her husband.