| May 9, 2015, 7:58 am |
Leslie Cheung Kwok-wing (September 12, 1956 April 1, 2003) (Chinese: ia; Cantonese IPA: [ts?55 kw?k33 w??11], Jyutping: zoeng1 kwok3 wing4; Mandarin Pinyin: Zh?ng Gurng, Wades-Giles: Chang Kuo-jung; nickname "Gor-gor" ("Elder Brother" in Cantonese)) was an actor and a musician from Hong Kong.
Leslie Cheung Kwok-wing was born in Kowloon, Hong Kong. His birth name was Cheung Fat-chung, which was later changed to Cheung Kwok-wing. Cheung was the youngest of 10 children in a middle-class family. His father was a fairly well-known tailor, whose customers included the American actors William Holden and Cary Grant. His parents divorced when he was quite young. At the age of 13, he was sent to England as a boarder at Norwich School and faced racial discrimination at the school. He worked as a bartender at his relatives' restaurant and sang during the weekends. It was around this period that he chose his name, "Leslie". According to Cheung, he chose this name because "I love the film Gone with the Wind. And I like Leslie Howard. The name can be a man's or woman's, it's very unisex, so I like it.".
In several of his interviews, Cheung stated that he had a fairly unhappy childhood. "I didn't have a happy childhood. Arguments, fights and we didn't live together; I was brought up by my granny." (Time magazine interview with Richard Corliss) "What I would say most affected me as a child, was that my parents were not at home with me. As a young kid, one could not always understand why his parents weren't at home. This made me depressed sometimes."
Cheung attended Leeds University in northern England, where he studied textile management. He dropped out of Leeds University at the end of his first year in 1976, when his father fell ill. After his father's recovery, Cheung did not return to England to complete his studies.
Cheung was considered as "One of the founding fathers of Cantopop," and "combining a hugely successful film and music career".
Beginning of Career
In 1977, Cheung won second prize at Asian Music Contest held by Rediffusion Television Co. (RTV). He signed a contract with RTV (RTV subsequently became Asia Television Company (ATV)) and began his career in the entertainment industry. He also signed a music contract with Polydor Records, releasing Day Dreaming (1977) and Lover's Arrow (1979).
The early days of his career were not easy. He was once booed off the stage during a public performance, and his first two albums were not welcomed by the public. He left Polydor Records at the end of his contract. Cheung's first film, The Erotic Dream of the Red Chamber in 1978 was a soft porn film, marking a low point in his career. Cheung later stated that he was unaware of the sexual nature of the film when he signed the contract.
During the 70s and 80s, he appeared in a number of TV dramas such as The Young Concubine , Agency 24 ,Pairing , and The Spirit Of The Sword. These TV dramas helped turn him into a household name in South East Asia.
In 1982, Cheung joined Capital Artists upon the end of his contract with RTV. It was at Capital Artist that Florence Chan became his music agent and remained as such through his entire career. While at Capital Artist, he also met Anita Mui, another Hong Kong Cantopop idol, starting a long lasting friendship. In 1983, Cheung released his first hit song, The Wind Blows On. In 1984, he released his first top ten hit song Monica, which became the first so-called "fast" song that won the RTHK Top Ten Chinese Gold Songs Award. Monica became representative of a new genre of Hong Kong music in the mid 1980s. Fans began to demand fast and energetic Cantopop songs that would be suitable for both dancing and listening. Other Top Ten Gold Songs released by Cheung through Capital Artists included Wild Wind (album, For Your Love Only, 1985); Who Can Be With Me (album, Leslie Cheung: Allure Me, 1986) and Mode of Those Years (theme song for A Better Tomorrow, album Leslie Cheung: Allure Me, 1986). Who Can Be With Me became the Gold of the Gold Songs (Best Song) of the Year for 1986.
Cheung's movie career was a little slower to take off. He appeared in supporting roles in his second and third movies Encore (1980) and On Trial (1981). However, his acting talent was soon recognized with his nomination for the Hong Kong Film Awards's Best Supporting Actor for his role in On Trial. Subsequently after this nomination, he began to star as the leading man in Teenage Dreamers (1982) and has held the lead role in almost every movie he had been in since. From the early 1980s through 1986, most of the movies in which he had starred were teenage movies. Among them, Nomad (1982, directed by Patrick Tam Kar-ming) are widely considered by film critic as the representation of the Hong Kong "New Wave" films. Cheung's role as Louis in Nomad won him his first Best Actor nomination of the Hong Kong Film Awards. Later, Cheung stated that he considers Nomad as his first "real" movie. During this period, Cheung continued to act in a number of Television Broadcasts (TVB) dramas, such as Once Upon an Ordinary Girl and The Fallen Family .
Stardom and Retirement
Leslie Cheung in the Final Encounter of the Legend concert, 1989In 1986, he joined Cinepoly Records Hong Kong and released the album Summer Romance in 1987. Summer Romance became the Best Selling CD of the Year and IFPI Best Selling Album in Hong Kong. The success of Summer Romance made him one of the top two Cantopop idols (the other one was Alan Tam) at the time. In 1988, he composed one of his most famous songs Silence is Golden. Other popular albums published by Cheung through Cinepoly Records included Hot Summer (1988), Virgin Snow(1988), Leslie '89 (Side face, IFPI Best Album of the Year, 1989), Final Encounter (1989), and Salute (1990). Salute was the first non-profit album released by a superstar in Hong Kong music history that would only collect songs originally performed by other singers. According to Cheung, Salute is an album to salute the music. He donated all the income from Salute to the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts, which was named as the Leslie Cheung Memorial Scholarship after his death.
With the popularity of Cheung and Tam, fans of the two stars became increasingly hostile to each other, starting a long-standing conflict that soon put heavy pressure on both singers. In 1988, Alan Tam publically quit all pop music award ceremonies. In 1989, Cheung claimed to retire from his music career as a singer. Cheung then set a record by being the first singer ever in Cantopop history to hold a retirement concert series (Final Encounter of the Legend), which ran for 33 consecutive nights (he was 33 at the time) at Hong Kong Coliseum. In 1990, he left Hong Kong at the peak of his music career and immigrated to British Columbia, Canada. Later in 1992, he gained Canadian citizenship and left Canada to reside in Hong Kong again.
From 1986 to 1989, Cheung acted in a number of movies that are considered as Hong Kong classics by film critics and Asian movie fans. In 1986, Cheung co-starred with Chow Yun Fat in A Better Tomorrow (directed by John Woo), which was widely considered as a trend starter for Hong Kong triad movies in the 1980s. Cheung played Kit, a righteous and idealistic young cop. Cheung's role in the movie was widely considered his debut as a serious actor. He also starred in the sequel, A Better Tomorrow II (1987). In 1987, Cheung starred in Stanley Kwan's Rouge. He played Chen-Pang Chan, an infatuated, opium-smoking playboy and doomed lover of a beautiful prostitute, Fleur (played by Anita Mui). That same year (1987), he appeared in Tsui Hark's A Chinese Ghost Story(directed by Ching Siu-tung). Cheung played Ling Choi Sin, a nice but cowardly debt collector who had fallen in love with a beautiful ghost (played by Joey Wong). His performance in these movies won him two Best Actor nomination from Hong Kong Film Awards. The success of A Better Tomorrow and A Chinese Ghost Story made his name known in the Japanese and South Korea film markets.
Golden Age in Film
Leslie Cheung in the movie Days of Being Wild, 1990The mid-80s to mid-90s was a golden age in Hong Kong's film industry, which coincided with Cheung's film career. In 1990, Cheung acted as Yuddy, a handsome, ruthless bad boy, philanderer and narcissist in Wong Kar-wai's movie Days of Being Wild. His performance in Days of Being Wild won him the Best Actor Award of Hong Kong Film Awards in 1991 and his first nomination of Best Actor of Golden Horse Film Festival (Taiwan). He also acted in two other Wong Kar-wai movies. In the 1994 martial arts film, Ashes of Time, he starred as Ouyang Feng, a swordsman and assassin who spent his days in a desert. His role as Ouyang won him the Best Actor Award of Hong Kong Film Critics Society Awards. In 1997's gay movie Happy Together (although Wong insists that it isn't essentially a "gay" film), he played a bitchy boy, Ho Po-wing, who went to Argentina with his boyfriend Lai Yiu-fai (played by Tony Leung Chiu-wai).
In 1992's historical masterpiece Farewell My Concubine (directed by Kaige Chen), Cheung acted as the Peking opera star Dieyi Chen, turning drag farce to grand opera. Farewell My Concubine is the first Chinese film to have won the Golden Palm award from Cannes Film Festival (It also won more than twenty other film awards including a Golden Globe for Best Foreign Film and Oscar nominations for Best Foreign Film and Best Cinematography). Cheung's performance in the film won him international fame as a film star and set his steps in the mainland China film industry. In 1996, he worked again with Kaige Chen, playing the role of a misty gigolo, Zhongliang Yu, in the Temptress Moon. In 1998's A Time to Remember (directed by Yip Ying), he acted as Jin, an underground Chinese Communist leader. His Hong Kong background stimulated a lasted dispute during the time, but the film still achieved Box Office success in mainland China and in 2004 won a "Most Popular Foreign Film" Award in North Korea film festival.
Other important movies Cheung starred in during this period include The Bride with White Hair (with Brigitte Lin, 1993), He's a Woman, She's a Man (with Anita Yuen, 1994), Phantom Lover(1995), and Viva Erotica (with Shu Ki, 1996). His performance in these movies got him three Best Actor Award nominations from Hong Kong Film Awards and three Best Actor Award nominations from Golden Horse Film Festival from 1990 to 1998.
As a versatile actor, Cheung also acted in many comedies. In 1991, teamed again with Chow Yun-Fat and Cherrie Cheung, Cheung acted a skillful and charming thief in John Woo's Once A Thief. In 1992's All's Well, Ends Well, he acted an effeminate brother. Other known comedies acted by him included The Eagle Shooting Heros: Dong Cheng Xi Jiu, It's a Wonderful Life, and A Chinese Feast. Cheung was also a box office attraction in Hong Kong: from 1990 to 1998, 13 out of 39 movies starred by him were listed as yearly top ten box office movies.
Although Cheung quit his career as a pop singer from 1989 to 1995, he continued his music career as a composer. He composed more than ten songs during the time. In 1993, he won Best Original Movie Song Award from Golden Horse Film Festival for the theme song Red Cheek, White Hair of the movie A Bride of White Hair (as a composer). In 1995, he composed all three theme songs for the Movie Phantom Lover. As a composer, Cheung got four nominations of Best Original Movie Song Award from Golden Horse Film Festival and two nominations of Best Original Film Song from Hong Kong Film Festival.
Return to Music
Red, 1996In 1995, Cheung signed a contract with Rock Records, returning to music as a singer. At the same year, he released his first post-"retirement" album, Beloved. Beloved achieved large market success with the award of IFPI Best Selling Album[16] [17], but it did not receive much acclaim from music critics as it is a collection of Cheung's movie theme songs from 1993 to 1995. In 1996, Cheung released possibly his most highly acclaimed album, Red. Red was a fusion album, mixing smooth jazz, R&B, trip hop, etc., into cantopop, forming a consistent unique style. Cheung worked since then on cutting-edge music as well as cantopop, his new music style being totally different from before his earlier retirement. In this album, Cheung also composed another important song in his music career, Red. In 1998, Cheung released his first album in mandarin (and also the only one originally in the language), Printemps.
"Hong Kong Pop Singers" stamp series released by the Hong Kong Post Office featuring Leslie Cheung on November 18, 2005.In 1997, Cheung held his first post-retirement concert series: World Tour 97, which lasted from Dec. 12, 1996 to June 17, 1997. Like with the refinements to his musical style, Cheung introduced a new image to his audience. The most daring part possibly was the closing dance "Red" where Cheung did a tango duet in a pair of red high-heels with a macho dancer . World Tour 97 included 55 concerts: 24 concerts were held in Hong Kong Coliseum and 31 concerts were held in the cities around the world. Among them, six concerts were held in Japan and mainland China respectively. World Tour 97 was the first concert series that Cheung held in these two areas.
In 1999, Cheung started a music company, Apex Music, signing a distribution contract with Universal Music Group(UMG). Important albums released via UMG includes Count Down With You (1999), Big Heat (2000), and Untitled (2000). The hit songs released by him during this peoriod include Passing-by Dragonfly, the top one hit song, Big Heat, and Left Right Hands, Top Ten Gold Song of the Year (1999). He also composed the song I (first released in album Big Heat), which was considered by him as a song of self-statement. In 2000, Cheung was awarded the Golden Needle award (lifetime achievement award in Cantopop music). In the same year, Cheung had been assigned as the "Music Ambassador" of Composors And Authors Society of Hong Kong (CASH) until his demise. Cheung also composed the theme song Noah's Ark, for the CASH Golden Sail Award.
The Later Years
Leslie Cheung in Passion Tour, 2001In 2000, Cheung held his last concert series, Passion Tour. Passion Tour included 43 concerts, lasting from July 31, 2000 to April 16, 2001. It was his most disputable, and possibly best concert. Cheung worked at the first time as the art director as well as the singer for the concert. He invited Jean-Paul Gaultier to design all eight costumes for the concert. However, the costumes, together with his long wig and beard, were criticized bitterly by Hong Kong media at the early stage of the concerts. Cheung later disclosed that Gaultier was very angry about the criticism and claimed in an email (sent to Cheung) that he would never design costumes again for any Asian performer. Despite the early criticisms from the media, Passion Tour achieved huge success. Passion Tour was highly welcomed in Japan and made Cheung hold 10 concerts there. Together with World Tour 97 concerts, Cheung set a record of foreign artists of holding 16 concerts in Japan. In China, Cheung set a record yet to be broken by holding two consecutive night concerts in Shanghai Stadium (capacity of 80,000). He was also awarded the "Grand Salute Award" (2000) by Mingpao Weekly (Hong Kong) and "Music Salute Award" (2000) from Chinese Pop Music Media Association (mainland China) for his work in Passion Tour.
By the end of the 1990s, Cheung had began to focus on acting in non-romance roles. In The Kid (1999, directed by Jacob Cheung Chi-Leung), he starred as a poor single father who fostered an abandoned baby boy. In the action thriller Double Tap (2000, directed by Lo Chi Leung), he played a psycho killer, Rick. In the 2002 psycho thriller Inner Sense (directed by Lo Chi Leung), he played psychologist Dr. Law, who discovered his own emotional issues when he tried to treat his patient Yan (Kar Yan Lam). His performance in these films earned him another Best Actor nomination from the Hong Kong Film Awards. He also garnered another two Best Actor Award nominations from Taiwan Film Festival. During this period, Cheung began to try his hand at film direction. In 2000, he directed his first movie, the 45 minutes From Ashes to Ashes. In 2002, he began to film his first regular length movie Stealing Heart. The film was not completed due to the deterioration of his health.
Sexual Orientation
Cheung was bisexual and once said:
"It's more appropriate to say I'm bisexual. I've had girlfriends. When I was 22 or so, I asked my girlfriend Teresa Mo (his frequent co-star in ATV serials of the time) to marry me."
Despite numerous tabloid rumors, he denied his sexual orientation for the first half of his career. After his immigration to Canada (in Vancouver, British Columbia), his stance relaxed considerably. In the early 1990s he became one of the few Hong Kong actors who dared play gay characters onscreen.
Cheung's first gay role was Cheng Dieyi in Farewell, My Concubine (1993). Cheng Dieyi was a Beijing opera singer or Dan (male actor who plays female roles) who had fallen in love with his male singing partner. In Wong Kar-wai's Happy Together (1997), Cheung played another gay role, Ho Po-wing. Happy Together contained graphic sex scenes. He was nominated for the Best Actor Award at the Golden Horse Awards and the Hong Kong Film Awards for his role in Happy Together.
In 1995 a Hong Kong tabloid published a photo of Cheung with another man, Daffy Tong Hok-Tak. In a 1997 concert, Cheung openly revealed that Tong was his "most beloved" after his mother. The Hong Kong media eventually accepted the two men's relationship and gave Tong the nickname Tong Tong (in the style of Gor Gor). After Cheung's death, Tong published a full-page obituary in a Hong Kong newspaper, in which he was listed as a surviving spouse (???), and was named the executor of Cheung's estate.
Death
Leslie Cheung's funeral car (upper) and memorial service (lower)Cheung committed suicide on April 1, 2003. He leapt from the 24th floor of the Mandarin Oriental Hotel, located in the Central district of Hong Kong Island (Corliss, 2003). He left a suicide note* saying that he had been suffering from depression. He was 46 years old.
As one of the most popular performers in Asia, Cheung's death shocked the Asian entertainment industry and Chinese community. Rumors about the cause of his death spread so fast that his family urged tabloids to let Cheung rest in peace, and not to sensationalize his sexual orientation and reasons for suicide. The day after Leslie's death, his long time partner, Tong, confirmed that Cheung suffered from (clinical) depression and had been seeing psychiatrists for treatment for almost a year. He also revealed that Cheung had attempted suicide in 2002. Later at his funeral, Cheung's niece disclosed that Cheung had a severe illness and suffered much over the past year (2003).
Despite the risk of infection from SARS and the WHO's warning on travels to Hong Kong, tens of thousands, including celebrities and other fans, many from other parts of the world such as mainland China, Taiwan, Japan, Southeast Asia, the United States and Canada attended Cheung's memorial service, which was held for the public, on April 7, 2003. Cheung's funeral was on April 8, 2003. For almost one month, Cheung's death dominated newspaper headlines in Hong Kong and his songs were constantly on the air.
Cheung's last album Everything Follows the Wind was released three months after his death.
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| | 1 - Cheung, Leslie 張國榮 : 環球巨星影音啟示錄 - 張國榮 ( + ) |
| | 2 - Cheung, Leslie 張國榮 : 煙花燙 ( + ) |
| | 3 - Cheung, Leslie 張國榮 : 兜風心情 ( + ) |
| | 4 - Cheung, Leslie 張國榮 : 愛慕 ( + ) |
| | 5 - Cheung, Leslie 張國榮 : Stand Up ( + ) |
| | 6 - Cheung, Leslie 張國榮 : Hot Summer ( + ) |
| | 7 - Cheung, Leslie 張國榮 : 一片癡 ( + ) |
| | 8 - Cheung, Leslie 張國榮 : 情人箭 ( + ) |
| | 9 - Cheung, Leslie 張國榮 : History.His Story ( + ) |
| | 10 - Cheung, Leslie 張國榮 : 鍾情張國榮 ( + ) |
| | 11 - Cheung, Leslie 張國榮 : 傾訴 ( + ) |
| | 12 - Cheung, Leslie 張國榮 : Legend ( + ) |
| | 13 - Cheung, Leslie 張國榮 : 張國榮電影歌曲精選 ( + ) |
| | 14 - Cheung, Leslie 張國榮 : Leslie (1989) ( + ) |
| | 15 - Cheung, Leslie 張國榮 : Virgin Snow (1988) ( + ) |
| | 16 - Cheung, Leslie 張國榮 : Cross Over ( + ) |
| | 17 - Cheung, Leslie 張國榮 : Best Of Music Videos Karaoke 1 ( + ) |
| | 18 - Cheung, Leslie 張國榮 : 狂戀 ( + ) |
| | 19 - Cheung, Leslie 張國榮 : 張國榮跨越97演唱會 ( + ) |
| | 20 - Cheung, Leslie 張國榮 : 張國榮精精精選48首 ( + ) |
| | 21 - Cheung, Leslie 張國榮 : Summer Romance ( + ) |
| | 22 - Cheung, Leslie 張國榮 : 張國榮好精選+Music Box ( + ) |
| | 23 - Cheung, Leslie 張國榮 : The Best Of Leslie Cheung ( + ) |
| | 24 - Cheung, Leslie 張國榮 : 常在心頭 ( + ) |
| | 25 - Cheung, Leslie 張國榮 : SALUTE ( + ) |
| | 26 - Cheung, Leslie 張國榮 : 張國榮好精選 ( + ) |
| | 27 - Cheung, Leslie 張國榮 : Forever ( + ) |
| | 28 - Cheung, Leslie 張國榮 : 大熱 ( + ) |
| | 29 - Cheung, Leslie 張國榮 : 永遠寵愛 ( + ) |
| | 30 - Cheung, Leslie 張國榮 : 哥哥的前半生 (1996) ( + ) |
| | 31 - Cheung, Leslie 張國榮 : 張國榮DCS聲選輯 (2000) ( + ) |
| | 32 - Cheung, Leslie 張國榮 : Leslie (1984) ( + ) |
| | 33 - Cheung, Leslie 張國榮 : Leslie (Hit 2000) ( + ) |
| | 34 - Cheung, Leslie 張國榮 : 風繼續吹 (1983) ( + ) |
| | 35 - Cheung, Leslie 張國榮 : 摯愛1995-2003 ( + ) |
| | 36 - Cheung, Leslie 張國榮 : 張國榮熱.情演唱會 ( + ) |
| | 37 - Cheung, Leslie 張國榮 : 一切隨風 ( + ) |
| | 38 - Cheung, Leslie 張國榮 : The Classics ( + ) |
| | 39 - Cheung, Leslie 張國榮 : Untitled ( + ) |
| | 40 - Cheung, Leslie 張國榮 : 風再起時 ( + ) |
| | 41 - Cheung, Leslie 張國榮 : 拒絕再玩 ( + ) |
| | 42 - Cheung, Leslie 張國榮 : Final Collection ( + ) |
| | 43 - Cheung, Leslie 張國榮 : Leslie Super Remix CD Single ( + ) |
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