Taiwanese screen legend Brigitte Lin recalled an incident in which she had to temporarily stop writing after a cockroach infestation at her Hong Kong residence, a property reported to be worth HK$1.1 billion (US$141 million).
Taiwanese screen legend Brigitte Lin in 2023. Photo from Lin’s Instagram |
The Star reported that in an essay for Chinese magazine Southern Weekly published Dec. 2, Lin, who retired from acting in 1994 and later became a writer, described how the infestation began with a single cockroach. She recalled spotting the insect in her study one day and, when she tried to remove it with a tissue, accidentally flicking it onto her balcony.
“The tissues floated in the air like a scene from a wuxia film,” she wrote, as quoted by Dimsum Daily.
A few days after her first encounter with a cockroach at home, more appeared in her study, Lin said.
“It was not a coincidence, but an invasion,” she wrote, adding that she became too unsettled to work and found herself constantly scanning the room for insects.
Following a friend’s recommendation, Lin hired a pest-control company. On the night of the first treatment, her housekeeper found the kitchen floor covered with what at first appeared to be “tiny black dots,” later identified as dead or dying cockroaches. Lin described the scene bluntly: “Bodies were everywhere.” It took two to three follow-up treatments before the infestation was brought under control.
While on holiday in Hangzhou after the incident, Lin again encountered another cockroach that a friend trapped and released outdoors. Lin conceded she felt conflicted about the pests but warned: “If I see one again, I may not be able to hold back, there will be no mercy.”
Now 71, Lin was discovered as a teenager in Taipei and rose to fame after her debut in the film adaptation of Chiung Yao’s “Outside the Window.” She later became a leading figure in Chinese-language cinema, earning a Lifetime Achievement Award at the 60th Golden Horse Awards in 2023.
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