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Leslie Cheung
Leslie Cheung circa 1999
Native name	張國榮
Pronunciation	Cheung Kwok-wing[1]
Born	Cheung Fat-chung (張發宗) (1956-09-12)September 12, 1956 British Hong Kong
Died	April 1, 2003(2003-04-01) (aged 46) Hong Kong
Cause of death	Suicide
Resting place	Cremated, location undisclosed
Residence	Hong Kong Vancouver, Canada[2]
Nationality	Chinese
Other names	Leslie Cheung
Education	Bachelor of Textile (dropped out)
Alma mater	University of Leeds (dropped out)
Occupation	Singer actor
Years active	1977-2003
Partner(s)	Teresa Mo (1977–1979) Shirley Yim [zh] (1980) Ngai Sze-pui (1981–1983) Cindy Yeung (1984–1985) Daffy Tong (1983–2003)
Parents	Cheung Wut-hoi (father) Poon Yuk-yiu (mother)
Musical career
Also known as	Gor Gor (哥哥; meaning "Elder brother")[3][4][5]
Origin	British Hong Kong
Genres	Cantopop Mandopop
Instruments	Vocals
Labels	Polydor Capital Cinepoly Rock Universal
Cheung Kwok-wing
Traditional Chinese	張國榮
Simplified Chinese	张国荣
Transcriptions Standard Mandarin Hanyu Pinyin Zhāng Guó-róng Yue: Cantonese Jyutping Zoeng1 Gwok3-wing4
Cheung Fat-chung
Traditional Chinese	張發宗
Simplified Chinese	张发宗
Transcriptions Standard Mandarin Hanyu Pinyin Zhāng Fā-zōng Yue: Cantonese Jyutping Zoeng1 Faat3-zung1

Leslie Cheung Kwok-wing ^[1] (born Cheung Fat-chung) (12 September 1956 – 1 April 2003) was a Hong Kong singer and actor. He is considered "one of the founding fathers of Cantopop" for achieving huge success both in film and music.

Cheung debuted in 1977, and rose to prominence as a teen heartthrob and pop icon of Hong Kong in the 1980s, receiving numerous music awards including Most Popular Male Artist Awards at the 1988 and 1989 Jade Solid Gold Best Ten Music Awards.^[6][7] In 1989, Cheung announced his retirement from the music industry as a pop singer. Returning to the music scene after a five-year hiatus, Cheung released his chart-topping comeback album Most Beloved (寵愛) which achieved a huge market success. In 1999, he won the Golden Needle Award for his outstanding achievement as a musician at the RTHK Top 10 Gold Songs Awards,^[8] and his 1984 hit song Monica was voted as Hong Kong's "Song of the Century".^[9] He was honoured as "Asia's Biggest Superstar" at the 2000 CCTV-MTV Music Honours.^[10]

Cheung won the 1991 Hong Kong Film Award (Days of Being Wild)^[11] and the 1994 Hong Kong Film Critics Society Award (Ashes of Time)^[12] for best actor. He had also won the 1994 Japan Film Critics Society Award for best actor for his performance in Farewell My Concubine and ten other best actor nominations, five Golden Horse Awards, three Cannes Film Festival Awards,^[13][14] an Asia Pacific Film Festival Award, and a Venice Film Festival Award.^[15]

Cheung's music and films not only captured fans in Hong Kong but also other Asian areas including Taiwan, Singapore, Malaysia, Mainland China, Japan and South Korea. He is the first foreign artist to hold 16 concerts in Japan, a record that has yet to be broken and also a record holder as the best-selling C-pop artist in Korea.^[16]

Cheung was ranked in the 100 years of Chinese cinema.^[17][18] In 2010, he was voted the third "Most Iconic Musicians of All Time" (after Michael Jackson and The Beatles).^[19]CNN considered Cheung as the "Most Beautiful Man from Hong Kong Cinema" and one of "Asia's 25 Greatest Actors of All Time."^[20][21]

Cheung was diagnosed with depression and committed suicide on April 1, 2003 by jumping off the 24th floor of the Mandarin Oriental hotel in Hong Kong.

Early life and education

Cheung was born Cheung Fat-chung in Kowloon, Hong Kong, the youngest of ten children in a middle-class Hakka family. Cheung Wut-hoi (張活海), his father, was a fairly well known tailor, whose customers included American actors William Holden, Marlon Brando, and Cary Grant.^[22][23][24] His parents divorced when he was quite young. While in Hong Kong, Cheung attended Rosaryhill School at Wan Chai on Hong Kong Island. At age 12, he was sent to Norwich School in England.^[25] He worked as a bartender at his relatives' restaurant in Southend-on-Sea 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."^[25]

In several interviews, Cheung stated he had 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."^[25] "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."^[26]

Cheung attended the University of Leeds where he studied textile management. He continued university through the end of his first year when his father fell ill. After his father's recovery, Cheung did not return to England to complete his studies.^[23][27]

Career

Following his participation in talent competitions, Cheung signed with Polydor Records in 1977 and released his first albums, I Like Dreamin and Day Dreamin, recording the full contents of the album in English. The albums flopped as did his first Cantonese-language album, Lover's Arrow, in 1979. During one performance in 1980, Cheung was booed by the crowd and the singer briefly departed from his music career, until signing with Capital Artists in 1982 where he released his breakthrough album, Wind Blows On that year. In 1984, his song "Monica" became the best-selling single in Hong Kong history and made Cheung a music superstar. Cheung would release more successful albums, including For Your Heart Only (1985), Stand Up (1986) and Admiration (1986). Cheung left Capital Artists in 1987 and released nine more albums on the Cinepoly label.

Cheung donated profits of the 1989 album Salute to the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts, which was named the Leslie Cheung Memorial Scholarship after his death.^[28]

Cheung's status as one of Hong Kong's biggest artists brought him in competition with fellow superstar Alan Tam (譚詠麟), leading to increasing hostility between their fans, starting a long-standing conflict that soon put heavy pressure on both singers. In 1988, Tam publicly quit all pop music award ceremonies. In 1989, Cheung announced his intention 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.

The turning point in Cheung's acting career came in 1986 with his starring role in John Woo's (吳宇森) A Better Tomorrow,^[29] which broke Hong Kong's box office record. In the following years Cheung was praised for his performances in films which found popularity with audiences worldwide, including A Chinese Ghost Story (1987), Rouge (1987) and Wong Kar-Wai's Days of Being Wild (1991).^[30]

Although Cheung quit his career as a pop singer from 1989 to 1995, he continued his music career as a songwriter. He composed more than ten songs during that time. In 1993, he won Best Original Movie Song Award from Golden Horse Film Festival for the theme song Red Cheek, White Hair to the film The Bride with White Hair (as a film score composer). In 1995, he wrote all three theme songs for the film The Phantom Lover. As for songwriting, Cheung won four nominations for Best Original Movie Song Award at the Golden Horse Film Festival and Awards and two nominations for Best Original Film Song at the Hong Kong Film Awards. In 1998, he was a member of the jury at the 48th Berlin International Film Festival.^[31]

In 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.^[32][33]

In 2001 Cheung collaborated with William Chang, the art director of Wong Kar-Wai's Days of Being Wild (1991), to make his music video Bewildered, about the intimacy between two gay men.^[34] Japanese ballet dancer Nishijima Kazuhiro played Cheung's lover in the video.^[34] The music video was demonized for advocating homosexuality and was banned by TVB, but Cheung refused to edit the scenes and censor himself.^[34]

Cheung's last concert tour was the Passion Tour, which took place in Hong Kong and overseas from 2000 to 2001. Cheung collaborated with fashion designer Jean Paul Gaultier, transforming Cheung "From Angel to Devil" in four costumes: the Angel, the Pretty Boy, the Latin Lover, and the Devil – denoting cross-cultural drag and focusing on Cheung's androgyny and bisexuality.^[34] Although Passion Tour was acclaimed in Japan, Korea, and Canada for Cheung's glamour and dignity in using drag performance through Gaultier's costume designs, in Hong Kong it was received with disapproval.^[34]

In 2011, CCTV commented the "Passion Tour" that from performance form, art concept, costume props and audience response, all represent the highest standard of Chinese concerts, no one has ever surpassed.^[34]

Personal life

Cheung distinguished himself as a Canto-pop singer through embodying the politics, sexual and gender identity of a queer subject position.^[34] He announced his same-sex relationship with Daffy Tong during a concert in 1997, earning him prestige in LGBT communities in China, Japan, Taiwan, and Hong Kong.^[34] In a 2001 interview with Time magazine, Cheung 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 (毛舜筠) to marry me.", but was unsuccessful.^[35] In two interviews in 1992 and 2002, Cheung also stated that "My mind is bisexual. It's easy for me to love a woman. It's also easy for me to love a man too" and "I believe that a good actor would be androgynous, and ever changing," referencing his performance of intersexuality, androgynous dressing, and gay femininity in his music videos and films.^[34]

Cheung and Ngai Sze-Pui (倪詩蓓), a Hong Kong model and actress whom he met on the set of Agency 24, were in a relationship for two years.^[36]

Despite this, author Nigel Collett, who wrote a book on Cheung titled Firelight of a Different Colour: The Life and Times of Leslie Cheung Kwok-wing, concluded Cheung was gay and that the singer's struggle with his sexuality led to his depression.^[37]

Cheung responded to the question regarding lover,
"In terms of lover, I think I can be a better friend than a lover. Because I am a workaholic. To share my romance, that person has to compromise something." This statement was out during the interview following the release of Okinawa Rendezvous.^[38]

Cheung was never married but was in a long-time relationship with childhood friend, Daffy Tong.^[39]

Charity work

Cheung was a supporter of several charities concerning children's welfare. He was a patron of the Children's Cancer Foundation, a charity that provides caring service for young children with cancer and their families. Cheung donated HK$1 million (US$128,000) in 1996 and launched five sets of RED cards to help raise funds for the Children's Cancer Foundation.^[40] He was the first star to launch a charity fundraiser at a concert.In 1996, he had rarely sung in public, but he sang three theme songs of his films to raise money for the elderly.^[41]
RED card is a charity that Cheung set up a collection booth outside the HK Coliseum in his concert in 1997. As long as donation of HK$100 or above can be obtained a set of card.Cheung said, "I will lead the way, so I donated HK$1,000,000 to Hong Kong children's cancer fund in my own name." During the concert, we collected more than HK$800,000, Cheung and his friends added more than HK$10,000 and made up a million Hong Kong dollars to donate to the cancer fund.^[42]

He was also a patron of the End Child Sexual Abuse Foundation (ECSAF), founded by veteran actress Josephine Siao (蕭芳芳).
"Last night, wireless for the Taiwan earthquake, ‘send warm to Taiwan’ fund-raising party, PO in front of the screen performance of fried rice fund-raising, "brother" Leslie Cheung on the stage to test food, praise good taste, impromptu donated 250,000 Hong Kong dollars to the victims of Taiwan, together with fans donations, a bowl of fried rice has raised 500,000 Hong Kong dollar." --1999^[43]

Sun Entertainment opened the "star Second-hand Shop", donated by the stars of second-hand goods to open the auction, the amount of money donated to the "Sun Love Fund." Leslie Cheung has always been praised that has a very good taste， in support of charitable activities, he was the first to donate carefully selected three pieces of love to treasure for the big auction. --2000 of the Sun^[44]
Leslie has donated his beloved badminton racket to the commercial Taiwan "http://idclub.com celebrities" for auction, income donated to children's Cancer Fund. "--2000 of Oriental Daily^[45]

In 1999 and 2000, he appeared in TVB charity shows to help raise funds for ECSAF, in which he was appointed a goodwill ambassador in 2002.^[46]

Seedling protection fund large-scale charity night this year, already is scheduled for April 12, Cheung takes the lead in response to donate $100,000HKD when celebrating his birthday on the same day last year, he has told the guests that give him cash instead of birthday presents, then he donate the all the money that he receive in his birthday party to the fund. -- March 12, 2003 Oriental daily.^[47]

Citizenship

He moved to Vancouver in 1990 and became a Canadian citizen by naturalisation.^[48] He held Canadian citizenship.

Death and legacy

Leslie Cheung leapt from the 24th floor of the Mandarin Oriental hotel (right) located at the Central district, Hong Kong Island.

3rd anniversary of Cheung's death, in Central, Hong Kong, 2006

"Miss You Much Leslie" exhibition at Times Square (Hong Kong), April 2013

Cheung died of suicide on 1 April 2003 at 6:43 pm (HKT).^[49] He leapt from the 24th floor of the Mandarin Oriental hotel, located in the Central district of Hong Kong Island.^[50] He left a suicide note saying that he had been suffering from depression. He was 46 years old.^{[51][52][53][54][55][56]}

As one of the most popular performers in Asia, Cheung's death broke the hearts of millions of his fans across Asia and shocked the Asian entertainment industry and Chinese community worldwide.^{[51][57][58][59][60][61]} The day after Cheung's death, his partner Daffy Tong confirmed that Cheung suffered from clinical depression and had been seeing Professor Felice Lieh Mak, a famous therapist, for treatment for almost a year. He also revealed that Cheung had previously attempted suicide in November of 2002.^[34] Later at his funeral, Cheung's niece disclosed that her uncle had severe clinical depression and suffered much over the past year.

Despite the risk of infection from SARS and the WHO's warning on traveling to Hong Kong, tens of thousands attended Cheung's memorial service, which was held for the public, on 7 April 2003, including celebrities and other fans, many from other parts of the world such as mainland China, Taiwan, Korea, Japan, Southeast Asia, the United States, and Canada. Cheung's funeral was held on 8 April 2003. For almost a month, Cheung's death dominated newspaper headlines in Hong Kong and his songs were constantly on the air. His final album, Everything Follows the Wind (一切隨風), was released three months after his death.

Cheung's suicide note (translation):

"Depression! Many thanks to all my friends. Many thanks to Professor Felice Lieh-Mak (麥列菲菲) (Cheung's last psychiatrist). This year has been so tough. I can't stand it anymore. Many thanks to Mr. Tong. Many thanks to my family. Many thanks to Sister Fei (沈殿霞). In my life I have done nothing bad. Why does it have to be like this?"

Local Hong Kong media and professionals worried that Cheung's death would infect youth who looked up to him with sexual disorientation and gay ideologies, linking gay life to violence, depression, and suicide in order to try to teach young people to fear homosexuality.^[34] Many media outlets focused primarily on arguing about his gay identity instead of on his artistic achievement in film and music.^[34] Before his death, Cheung mentioned in interviews that he had become depressed because of negative comments about gender-crossing in his Passion Tour concert.^[34] He had planned to retire from stage performance because of the strain of being a gay artist in Hong Kong, facing stigmatization, surveillance, and marginalization.^[34]

In a 2012 interview, Cheung's eldest sister, Ophelia, stated Cheung was diagnosed with clinical depression caused by a chemical imbalance in the brain.^[62] She said that reporters were frequently found outside of her brother's home which hampered his ability to get to his doctor's facility. Thus, he would come over to her house to consult with his doctor. He would ask his sister, "Why am I depressed? I have money and so many people love me." He was reluctant to take medication for his depression.^[63]

In 2013, Cheung's former music agent Florence Chan organised two memorial concerts entitled "Miss You Much Leslie" on 31 March and 1 April for the 10th anniversary of Cheung's death. Big names of the Hong Kong entertainment industry such as Jacky Cheung (張學友), Tony Leung Chiu-Wai (梁朝偉), Andy Hui (許志安), Leo Ku (古巨基), Chilam Cheung (張智霖), Vivian Chow (周慧敏), Kelly Chen (陳慧琳), Joey Yung (容祖兒), Grasshopper, and others performed at the concert at Hong Kong Coliseum. In addition, in 2013, Cheung's fans from around the world made 2 million orizuru cranes for the Guinness World Record as a tribute to the anniversary.^[64]

On 12 September 2016, on what would have been Cheung's 60th birthday, over one thousand fans joined Florence Chan in the morning at Po Fook Hill Ancestral Hall (寶福山) for prayers. At night, Cheung's fans club, Red Mission organised "Leslie Cheung 60th Red Hot Birthday Party" to commemorate Cheung. It was an outdoor birthday party at Central Harbourfront Event Space with a big LED screen^[65] projecting Cheung's past video clips, concerts, songs and pictures. Eason Chan (陳奕迅) as a member of Red Mission joined the party singing one of Cheung’s song "4 season" (春夏秋冬) as a tribute to Cheung.^[66] In the same month, another fans club, United Leslie also celebrated the big day of this renowned star. United Leslie organised an exhibition and movie screening of Cheung's two selected movies in PMQ, Central of Hong Kong.^[67]

Status as a "Gay Icon"

Cheung has been described as a gay icon by the BBC as well as Taiwan News.^[68][53] He is well known for his prominent roles portraying queer characters in Happy Together and Farewell My Concubine.^[53] A pair of red high heels Cheung wore during a performance of his song Red were described as "a top draw"^[69] at an exhibit on androgynous fashion in Hong Kong.

Asteroid

In 2018, 55383 Cheungkwokwing was named in memory of Leslie Cheung. The main-belt asteroid was discovered by Bill Yeung at the Desert Eagle Observatory in 2001.

Awards and nominations

RTHK Top 10 Gold Songs Awards

Jade Solid Gold Best Ten Music Awards

Other music awards

Hong Kong Film Awards

Golden Horse Awards

Other film awards

Ming Pao Power Academy Awards

Discography

Filmography

See also

• Cinema of Hong Kong


• Music of Hong Kong

References

Further reading

• Simon Broughton, Mark Ellingham, World Music Volume 2: Latin and North America, Caribbean, India, Asia and Pacific, BBC Radio, 2000,
  ISBN 1-85828-636-0
  


• Kei Mori, "夢想之欠片 (Broken pieces of dreams)", Renga Shyobo Shinshya Co Ltd, Tokyo, Japan, 2004,
  ISBN 4-902603-55-1
  


• Chitose Shima, "Leslie Cheung Interview", All About Leslie, p25–40, Sangyo Henshu Center Co., Ltd., Tokyo, Japan, 1999,
  ISBN 4-916199-10-3
  


• Chitose Shima, Time of Leslie Cheung, Sangyo Henshu Center Co., Ltd., Tokyo, Japan, 2004,
  ISBN 4-916199-59-6
  


• 
  Lisa Oldham Stokes (2007). Historical Dictionary of Hong Kong Cinema. Scarecrow Press. pp. 76–79. ISBN 978-0-8108-5520-5.
  


• City Entertainment Editor Committee, Leslie Cheung's Movie World 2 (1991–1995), City Entertainment, Hong Kong, 2006,
  ISBN 962-8114-98-0
  


• De Hui, Leslie Cheung's Movie Life I, II, Shanghai Bookstore Publishing House, Shanghai, 2006,
  ISBN 7-80678-557-4.


• 
  Yingjin Zhang; Zhiwei Xiao (2002). Encyclopedia of Chinese Film. London & New York: Routledge. p. 118. ISBN 0-203-19555-8.
  


• Helen Hok-Sze Leung, "In Queer Memory: Leslie Cheung (1956-2003)" In "Undercurrents Queer Culture and Postcolonial Hong Kong", UBC Press, Vancouver, 2008, p. 85 -105,
  ISBN 978-0-7748-1469-0
  

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Leslie Cheung.

• 
  Leslie Cheung on IMDb


• Leslie Cheung Internet Fan Club


• Leslie Cheung Cyberworld


• Leslie Cheung Fan Club


• Leslie Cheung Dreamworld


• Leslie Cheung Sings English songs on YouTube


• Leslie Cheung documentary on Bio Channel on YouTube


• レスリー・チャン（張國榮）スマイル