TAIPEI, May 28 -- Taiwan singing star Teresaa Teng was buried in Taiwan Sunday, three weeks after suffering a fatal asthma attack while visiting Thailand. Thousands of friends and fans waited outside Taipei's First Funeral Home, some after camping out overnight, to catch a final glimpse of Teng's casket, who succumbed to respiratory failure in Chiangmai May 9.
She was 42. 'She was a guiding force for entertainers in Taiwan and the rest of Asia who wished to be something more than just entertainers,' Taiwan Provincial Governor James Soong said. Soong, who represented President Lee Teng-hui at the funeral, was accompanied by a host of high-ranking officials, including commanders of the three branches of the military. Teresa Teng won fame singing for Taiwan's Nationalist troops, bringing comfort to homesick front-line soldiers guarding against possible attack from Communist Chinese troops across the Taiwan Strait. China banned her songs after they used expressions of nationalist patriotism. Beijing has viewed Taiwan as a renegade province since civil war split them in 1949. China later rescinded the ban on Teng's songs when relations between the two sides improved, but Teng, daughter of an old Nationalist soldier, refused to accept invitations to perform there. Taiwan's ruling party and defense officials lauded the singer with posthumous awards and offered to bury Teng in a military cemetery but were turned down. An elaborate landscape around Teng's tomb of black marble, with a likeness of a compact disk at the entrance, will not be completed for six months. 'She was like a big sister to us, very gentle and kind,' Taiwan's top comedian Yang Fei said. A crystal casket layered with bronze was lowered into the ground at Golden Treasure Mountain as fans mouthed the words of Teng's most famous song, 'When Will You Return?'