Leslie Cheung Kwok-wing (September 12, 1956 - April 1, 2003) was an actor and
a musician from Hong Kong.
 Childhood
and Education
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.
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.
Career
Cheung was considered as One of the founding fathers of Canto-pop, 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.
Ascension to Fame
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
Canto-pop 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
Canto-pop
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 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 Canto-pop 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 publicly 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
Canto-pop 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
The 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
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, 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 canto-pop, forming a consistent unique style. Cheung worked
since then on cutting-edge music as well as canto-pop, 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 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 period 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 Canto-pop
music). In the same year, Cheung had been assigned as the Music Ambassador of
Composers 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
In 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.
Death
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.
Cheung's suicide note (translation): Depression! Many thanks to all my
friends. Many thanks to Professor Felice Lieh-Mak (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 Fat Sister (Lydia
Shum Din-ha). In my life I did nothing bad. Why does it have to be like this?
|
