EVERY MORNING, pedestrians strolling along Carmel Road in Stanley can usually hear the faint strains of a Teresa Teng Li Yun tune drifting through an open bedroom window at her home.
Those close enough to the imposing, two-storey house overlooking Stanley Bay might recognise the melody as one of the Taiwanese star's famous hit songs, Thousands Of Words.
'Not knowing why, sadness is surrounding me. I pray every day, to quickly chase away love's loneliness . . . ' the song's melancholy lyrics waft in Putonghua.
However, inside the dwelling is a hive of activity. Today, like every other, Teng's housekeeper Cheung Kam-mei has reported for work at 9am on the dot, carrying a bunch of Teng's favourite pink roses, eager to get on with her chores.
Cheung, 42, is devoted to her mistress, who was a major 1970s and 80s star with a cult following in Japan, Taiwan and Hong Kong. Every detail of the singer's home must be spotless: the photographs, the pink walls, the pink, silky sofa and the pink candles for romantic dinners. Immaculate. Cheung loves to feel she is indispensable and is serving Teng to the best of her ability. She never takes a holiday, fearing Teng would miss her too much and be bored in the empty house.
Just one fact distinguishes this devotion from a normal relationship between employer and housekeeper: Teng has been dead for six years.