Carina Lau slammed by China netizens for Queen Elizabeth tribute

HONG KONG - Carina Lau has become the latest Hong Kong celebrity to be criticised by Chinese netizens for her tribute to Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II.

The monarch died at the age of 96 on Sept 8 after 70 years on the throne.

Lau, 56, shared a photo of the Queen on Instagram on Sept 9, writing in Chinese: “A tribute to Queen Elizabeth. This outstanding woman presided over a long and stable reign in a rapidly changing society. Her passing is an irreplaceable loss in our era.”

Lau, who played former Chinese empress Wu Zetian in the Detective Dee movie trilogy (2010 to 2018), did not reproduce the post on Chinese social media platform Weibo.

However, Chinese netizens flocked to her Weibo post dated Sept 15 to vent, with most of them expressing their displeasure at her tribute to the Queen.

Some challenged her to share the Instagram post on Weibo and told her not to return to China, while others brought up the First Opium War (1839 to 1842) which ceded Hong Kong Island to Britain. 

Lau has not responded to the backlash so far.

Last Thursday, veteran Hong Kong opera star and actor Law Kar Ying apologised and declared his patriotism in a video on Weibo after he was criticised by netizens in China for praising the Queen in a post on Instagram, which he has since deleted.

This article was first published in The Straits Times. Permission required for reproduction.