“I am what I am, a firework of many colors. Unrestrained as the sea and sky, I will be the strongest bubble.”
TRQ: Leslie Cheung Kwok-wing, Born September 12, 1956
Actor and singer Leslie Cheung Kowk-wing, was born Cheung Fat-chung, in Hong Kong on September 12, 1956. He was the youngest of ten children. His father was a tailer whose clients included Marlon Brando, Cary Grant, Alfred Hitchcock, and William Holden.
When Cheung was 12, he was sent to boarding school in Norwich, England. He adopted the unisex English name Leslie, after actor Leslie Howard, while bartending and singing at his relatives’ restaurant.
Cheung studied textiles at Leeds University for one year. He returned to Hong Kong to take care of his ill father. While there, he won second place in a Hong Kong television music contest, in which he sang Don McLean’s “American Pie.” This led to a recording contract and acting roles in soap operas and dramas.
After two failed albums, Cheung released the hit The Wind Blows On (1983). His song “Monica” (1984) was the best-selling single in Hong Kong history and made him an emerging “Cantopop” superstar. Through the course of his career, he recorded over twenty albums in Cantonese and Mandarin. He performed in sold-out theaters, auditoriums and stadiums.
Cheung’s first movie was Erotic Dream of the Red Chamber (1978). He later appeared in John Woo’s crime thriller A Better Tomorrow (1986), which broke Hong Kong box office records. Cheung plays a young man who falls in love with a courtesan dressed as a man.
By 1989, Cheung was ready to step away from singing. His fans pursued a toxic rivalry with those of pop star Alan Tam, and both performers suffered. Cheung launched Final Encounter of the Legend, a retirement concert series that lasted 33 nights, his age at the time.
Cheung’s work in film was critically praised. For Days of Being Wild (1990) by Wong Kar-Wai, Cheung won the Best Actor Prize at the Hong Kong Film Awards for his portrayal of a womanizing playboy. He also wrote award-winning music for The Bride with White Hair (1993).
At the time, Cheung said in an interview, “My mind is bisexual. It’s easy for me to love a woman. It’s also easy for me to love a man, too […] I believe that a good actor would be androgynous, and ever changing.”
He then went to China to film Farewell My Concubine (1993) with Chen Kaige. Cheung plays an actor at the Peking Opera who falls in love with the leading man. China banned the movie for its homosexuality, but it won the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival. It was also nominated for an Academy Award for Best Foreign Film, but lost to the Spanish film Belle Epoque (1992).
Two years later, Cheung released Beloved, his first album in six years. It won the IFPI Best-Selling Album award.
In 1997 he joined Tony Leung Chiuwai in playing gay lovers in Wong Kar-Wai’s Happy Together. Cheung once described the difficulty in working with Chiuwai:
“When we tried to shoot the love scene it really shocked Tony. He refused to do it. For two days he was miserable, lying on his bed. So, I went up to him and said, ‘Look at me, Tony, I’ve gone through so many scenes kissing, touching girls, grabbing breasts, do you think I really enjoyed it? Just treat it as a job, a normal love scene. I’m not going to fall in love with you, and I don’t want you to really have sex with me. You’re not my type.’ So, he agreed to do the scene.” In other words: Tony, dear boy, why not try acting?
After filming the movie, Cheung publicly acknowledged his relationship with banker Daffy Tong Hock Tak. Cheung and Tong were together for over 20 years.
Coming out increased his popularity as an entertainer. In 1998, he served on the 48th Berlin International Film Festival jury. In 2000, Cheung launched the “Passion” tour, for which Jean-Paul Gaultier designed eight costumes. Cheung performed for full houses in theatres, auditoriums and stadiums. He sold-out concerts at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas, where tickets prices topped $238.
However, despite Passion’s acclaim elsewhere, in Hong Kong Cheung was met with backlash. In interviews, Cheung confessed to being depressed over negative reactions to his gender-crossing performances. He once again planned to stop performing on stage.
In 2002, Cheung played a suicidal psychiatrist battling evil spirits in Law Chi-Leung’s Inner Senses. This was his last film, as he jumped from Hong Kong Mandarin Oriental Hotel’s twenty-fourth floor balcony on April 1, 2003.
Cheung’s family included Tong in their mourning and refer to him as Cheung’s spouse.
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Firelight of a Different Colour: The Life and Times of Leslie Cheung Kwok-Wing
