Leslie Cheung
Leslie Cheung Kwok-wing was a Hong Kong singer and actor. One of the most influential cultural icons in the Sinophone world, Cheung was known for his debonair demeanor, flamboyant screen characters, and avant-garde, androgynous stage presence. Throughout his 26-year career, he released over 40 music albums and acted in 56 films.
Born in Kowloon, British Hong Kong, Cheung studied in England from the age of 12 until he returned home in 1976. He garnered attention in 1977 when entering RTV's Asian Singing Contest and achieved popularity in 1984 with a hit single "Monica". Cheung is regarded as one of the founding fathers of Cantopop for defining the music genre in the 1980s. He announced his "retirement" from music in 1989 and emigrated to Canada the following year, but he returned to Hong Kong in 1994. His reemergence from the musical retirement in the late 1990s, particularly in his 1996 album Red, was marked by sonic experimentation and daring imagery.
In addition to music, Cheung achieved pan-Asian fame with such films as A Better Tomorrow and A Chinese Ghost Story. He won the Best Actor at the 1991 Hong Kong Film Awards for his role in Days of Being Wild, and became world-renowned for his performances in Farewell My Concubine and Happy Together. In April 2003, Cheung died by suicide by jumping off the Mandarin Oriental hotel in Hong Kong.
One of the best-selling musical acts in Hong Kong history, Cheung's studio albums Summer Romance and Most Beloved each sold over 300,000 copies and are among the best-selling albums of all time in the territory. In recognition of his work in the film industry, Cheung was selected as one of the Top 100 Foreign Actors of the 20th Century by Kinema Junpo. In 2010, CNN named him one of the 25 Greatest Asian Actors of All Time.
Early life
Cheung was born in Kowloon, British Hong Kong, the youngest of 10 children in a middle-class Hakka family. His father, Cheung Wut-hoi, was a well-known tailor who specialised in suits, whose customers included Western celebrities such as film director Alfred Hitchcock and actors Marlon Brando and Cary Grant. Despite his father's reputation in the fashion industry, Cheung was uninspired by the profession. Cheung told many interviewers that he had an unhappy childhood, feeling emotionally estranged from his father and siblings, and frequently witnessing arguments and fights in the household. He felt "depressed sometimes" and longed for affection from his parents who were absent for most of his childhood. His father's abusive treatment of his mother had a lasting effect on Cheung's perspectives on marriage. When Cheung's father married another woman, his emotional life further deteriorated. Cheung was brought up by his grandmother, to whom he was very close. Cheung summed up his upbringing as a "silent resentment" with "nothing worth remembering," except for the death of his grandmother when he was in primary school, which was the "one thing that I do remember about my childhood."Cheung attended Rosaryhill School in Hong Kong for secondary education, and at age 12 enrolled at an independent boys boarding school, Eccles Hall School Quidenham, near Norwich in England. During his time at Rosaryhill, Cheung did poorly academically, except that he excelled in the English language. He discovered a newfound interest in Western films and immersed himself in music, studying the original soundtrack of Romeo and Juliet. He recalled that there were "racial problems" when he was in England, but he managed to make friends. During weekends, he worked as a bartender and sometimes did amateur singing at his relatives' restaurant in Southend-on-Sea. He came across the film Gone with the Wind and chose Leslie as his English name, inspired by the actor Leslie Howard, feeling that "the name can be a man's or woman's; it's very unisex."
Cheung attended the University of Leeds, where he studied textile management. After one year of study, he returned to Hong Kong in 1976 when his father became paralysed on one side of his body following a stroke. As his father wanted all of his children to be at home, Cheung abandoned his studies and became a salesman for Levi's to make ends meet. Cheung recalled that during this time, "I had no plans. There I was, feeling like I was hanging in the middle of nowhere."
Career
Beginnings
Upon returning to Hong Kong Cheung went back to high school as a mature student and formed a band, in which he was the lead singer with his classmates. In May 1977, the band members signed up individually for RTV's Asian Singing Contest. Only Cheung remained until the final round of the Hong Kong division, where he finished as the first runner-up with a rendition of "American Pie". He proceeded to the pan-Asian division, finishing fifth. Soon after the competition, RTV offered Cheung a three-year contract as a second-rate actor for RTV. He also signed with Polydor Records with hopes of releasing music albums.Cheung's career in show business did not take off immediately. His first film role was in Erotic Dream of the Red Chamber, a softcore porn production that features his bare buttocks. His first two albums were solely recorded in English, and his third album, Lover's Arrow was recorded in Cantonese. The albums failed commercially, and critics lambasted Cheung's voice as "chicken-like". Cheung's first public performance at the 1977 Hong Kong Pop Folk Music Festival was booed off the stage by the audience. He described his early days into show business as "full of uncertainty ... I remember well that my singing career at the early stage was like 'a person running into a rock', full of despair and obstacles." Seeing little potential in Cheung, Polydor allowed him to depart on his own terms.
1982–1989: Cantopop success and film crossover
Cheung signed with Capital Artists, a record label closely associated with the then-dominant television network TVB, in 1982. His first hit single, "The Wind Blows On", is a cover version of Momoe Yamaguchi's Japanese single "The Other Side of Goodbye". The song was successful on charts, revitalising Cheung's image as a Cantopop singer. The titular album was Cheung's first to be certified gold by the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry Hong Kong. His second album with Capital, Craziness, is a compilation of songs he recorded for TVB dramas. The album was also a success, receiving a gold certification from the IFPI Hong Kong. He continued his movie crossover with roles mostly in teenage films, and earned his first major recognition for starring in Nomad. While Cheung had already been a well-known actor with likeable personae in TVB productions, his role as a disillusioned teenager in Nomad foresaw his future reputation as an icon of rebel. The role garnered Cheung a nomination for Best Actor at the 1983 Hong Kong Film Awards.The year 1984 was when Cheung achieved mass stardom. He released the hit single "Monica", a cover of the single by Japanese singer Kōji Kikkawa. The song topped charts in Hong Kong and was one of the 10 gold-certified songs honoured at TVB's 1984 Jade Solid Gold Best Ten Music Awards and the 1984 RTHK Top 10 Gold Songs Awards. The song's upbeat dance production introduced a new musical trend to Cantopop, in addition to the traditional sentimental ballads that had dominated the scene. Cheung's 1984 self-titled album, which included "Monica", was his first to be certified platinum by the IFPI Hong Kong and sold over 200,000 copies. He starred in the TVB drama Once Upon an Ordinary Girl and the film Behind the Yellow Line. In the latter, he co-starred with Maggie Cheung and Anita Mui, the latter of whom was also a musician. Both productions were commercially successful and put Cheung into the limelight as a prominent entertainer. As Cheung's fame expanded, the media began to pit him against fellow singer-actor Alan Tam, as the two were the most successful male Cantopop singers at the moment. The publicised so-called rivalry contributed to Cantopop's booming sales and lasted until the end of the 1980s.
Cheung's next albums with Capital were met with similar success. For Your Heart Only yielded the hit single "Wild Wind", which was among the 10 gold-certified songs honoured at both TVB's Jade Solid Gold and RTHK Top 10 awards. The album also included songs Cheung recorded for TVB dramas, propelling his image as a romantic male lead. His 1986 single "Who Feels the Same?" won the Gold Song Gold Award, the distinction for the most popular song of the year, at TVB's Jade Solid Gold Awards. With this achievement, Cheung became an arguably undisputed royalty of Cantopop. After the release of "Who Feels the Same?", he left Capital and joined Cinepoly Records, under which his first album was Summer Romance. The album was the best-selling Cantopop release of the year, earning seven times platinum certification from the IFPI Hong Kong and sold over 350,000 copies. Its lead single, "Sleepless Night", won the Gold Song Gold Award at the 1987 Jade Solid Gold Awards. The next two albums, Virgin Snow and Hot Summer, both were released in 1988 and sold well, receiving gold and platinum certifications from the IFPI Hong Kong.
A turning point in his burgeoning acting career came when he was cast in John Woo's action film A Better Tomorrow, in which he played a youthful and impulsive police officer torn between justice and his criminal brother. The film, along with A Chinese Ghost Story, propelled him to pan-Asian fame, especially in South Korea and Japan. He then starred, once again, alongside Mui in Rouge, which consolidated the pair's reputation as Hong Kong’s greatest musicians and entertainers. Yiu-wai Chu, author of the book Hong Kong Cantopop: A Concise History, noted that Cheung and Mui formed an "unprecedented" chemistry showcasing "mystic power of charisma", not only in films but also on stage performances together.
Cheung embarked on a 23-date tour at the Hong Kong Coliseum in mid-1988, sponsored by Pepsi. The tour was a sold-out and accumulated over 250,000 spectators. He also held several shows catering to the Chinese community in North America, visiting Atlantic City, Calgary, Toronto, and Vancouver. In light of the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests and the upcoming handover of Hong Kong, many Hong Kongers emigrated to Western countries. Following suit, Cheung announced his "retirement" from singing and emigrated to Vancouver, Canada, in 1989. Prior to his retirement, Cheung released three further albums under Cinepoly—Leslie '89, Salute, Final Encounter—all of which received platinum certifications from the IFPI Hong Kong. He won Most Popular Male Artist twice, at the 1988 and 1989 Jade Solid Gold Best Ten Music Awards. His "farewell concert tour", in support of the album Final Encounter, ran for 33 consecutive sold-out shows at the Hong Kong Coliseum. Cheung donated profits of his 1989 album Salute to the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts, which was named the Leslie Cheung Memorial Scholarship after his death.