[6][7] Born in Suzhou, China, in 1925 to acrobat parents,[2][3] Chan was brought to Kuala Lumpur in 1931, at the age of six, by her adoptive mother.
[citation needed] Still only 12 years old, she started working in a button-making shop,[3][8] earning six gantangs of rice and one loaf of cornbread a month plus 12 cents per thousand buttons.
She next worked at making mosquito nets, where she was better paid, with eight gantangs of rice, six katis of sugar, two bottles of oil, and one loaf of cornbread a month.
[9] In 1941, when Chan was 16, her mother arranged for her to marry an elderly Chinese Singaporean harbour contractor to become his fourth wife,[3][8] as her boyfriend could not afford the kind of dowry that was expected.
[citation needed] With her allowances cut, and her finances in dire straits, Chan sold her last gold bracelet for over RM$300, and took a train to Singapore the following year in 1942 to meet her husband.
Once the music starts, the troupe emerges from behind the curtains, and parade on stage, clad only in panties, and a star covering each nipple.
Dancing slowly to the tune of Chinese music, typically cha-cha and mambo rock, they strip naked the moment a voice booms "Hoi!"
In July 1957, Chan embraced Islam when she married Indonesian Mohamed Nazier Kahar, and in accordance with Muslim rites in Singapore, changed her name to Rosminah binti Abdullah.
As revolving stages were not invented yet, Chan and Lee improvised a little table on coasters, with ropes attached to each corner.
The moment she was completed naked, Chan would jump on the table, and four guys would pull each rope, spinning her around so that everyone had a good view.
For the afternoon shows, she would often perform extreme acts, starting 45 minutes earlier than the stipulated time to avoid being nabbed for contravening the indecency laws.
[13] The following month, Chan was charged again in Perth,[4] she was convicted of accepting money for sex at a massage parlour, and fined A$60.
[15] After her retirement, Chan married her fifth and final husband Low Kim Seng[16] in 1977 and kept herself busy with numerous ventures,[2] all of which were failures.
[citation needed] Around 1980, Chan was diagnosed with breast cancer,[2][17] and she chose to spend her final days in Penang, after being told by her doctors that she had only 18 months to live.
[3] That was when she hooked up again with her one-time manager, Lee Kai Hong, and together, they opened Galant, a one-stop entertainment shop at Transfer Road.
[citation needed] By late 1986, her health had deteriorated further, and it was then that she began to believe that her breast cancer was caused by her taxing act of balancing heavy objects on her chest during her performances.
[citation needed] In the six years since she fell sick, her medical treatment had taken its toll on her finances, and she was apparently in dire straits.
The Golden Maid lounge at Burmah Road held a 5-night charity show with her daughter Irene as one of the dancers to raise funds for her treatment.
Her husband Low Kim Seng, son Chong Weng Thye, two daughters Jennifer and Irene Chan and her manager Lee Kai Hong were at her deathbed.