| It would be indecent for Madam Fan Kwei-kam's gravestone not to bear her late husband's name, or even to carry the names of both her late husbands, her son Edward Chiu Chung-leung explained.
Mr. Chiu is fighting for his father's surname to be engraved on his mother's gravestone instead of that of her former husband, surnamed Lee, who died in 1950s. He says a judge's order that "kind mother" replace the surname would suggest she had no husband and had children outside marriage.
"The gravestone cannot carry both names because it would suggest that she was sleeping with two men at the same time," he said. "I am fighting for dignity, for dignity, for the truth and for my mother's and father's names."
Mr. Chiu said his half brother, Lee Fu-wai, never accepted his new father and was using his mother's death to make a point that only her marriage to Mr. Lee's father, who had two wives, was "real".
"The Lee children were very young and of low social status when their father died and my father was kind enough to help them, raise them," Mr. Chiu said. "My father was a jade businessman and now all the Lees have their own jade shops."
Mr. Chiu said he had tried talking to Mr. Lee but the latter suggested putting the Chiu name at bottom of the grave and covering it, signifying shame. "When my father died, my mother lived with me and I took care of her until the last minute," he said. "I am not fighting for her money - she had no money - but I am proud of the Chiu name and my mother is proud of it." Ravina Shamdasani |
A jewellery designer yesterday obtained a court's approval to delay his mother's funeral while he pursues a legal tussle with his half brother over which of then should be in charge of her funeral ritual and burial.
Edward Chiu Chung-leung is fighting for the right to have the family name engraved on his mother's gravestone.
After a closed hearing, Court of First Instance judge Robert Tang amended his earlier order on Friday that Fan Kwei-kam's remains be taken to Cheung Chau today for burial.
He ordered that the ritual be postponed but said it should be held by Saturday.
Mr. Justice Tang said Fan's burial could be held on or before Monday.
The delay is to allow Edward Chiu to file an appeal today against Mr. Justice Tang's ruling on Friday that Mr. Chiu's half brother Lee Fu-wai and Mr. Lee's son Lee Kwan-kit be in charge of funeral arrangements, including a Taoist burial ceremony.
Friday's ruling was prompted by a writ Chiu filed against the Lees demanding that his mother's body be released to him for burial.
The plaintiff , a devout Buddhist, hopes an appeal will result in him being placed in charge of his mother's funeral and in order that her gravestone carry his and his father's name, Chiu.
Fan died of Parkinson's disease two weeks ago, aged 82.
Outside court yesterday, Mr. Chiu said Lee Fu-wai's father had taken his mother as his concubine, and that she had subsequently married the designer's father, Chiu Wong, in 1955.
Mr. Chiu said Mr. Justice Tang had ruled on Friday that Fan could only be described as 'kind mother' on her gravestone and coffin, and that the names of all her children and grandchildren, but not that of Chiu Wong, could be engraved on the gravestone.
Mr. Chiu said the order was wrong because it had deprived his mother of her legitimate right to adopt hid father's family name and because he should be in charge of the burial arrangements.
"The court's order simply denies the fact that my father and my mother were a couple," he said.
"Chiu is her legitimate name because she last married my father. I am not fighting for my mother's estate but I am fighting for her {to get her} name back."
Mr. Chiu has already won one legal victory in the case. On Sunday, he secured a court order from another High Court judge that Fan's coffin be reopened at the Universal Funeral Parlour in Hunghom so he could change her clothes.
Asked whether her mother could not be laid to rest peacefully, Mr. Chiu said that, from the Buddhist point of view, her soul had already departed and the question was irrelevant.
"The most important thing I can fight for is the legitimate name for her," Mr. Chiu said.
Mr. Chiu designed accessories for the acclaimed film Anna and the King.
South China Morning Post 17 August 2004
