Leslie Cheung

Hong Kong superstar Leslie Cheung died almost two decades ago, but he's remembered worldwide for his amazing talent and LGBT+ icon status.

He said, at the time, that it was “easy” for him to “love a woman” and to “love a man too”. It was the first time Cheung introduced his partner and proclaimed that he was in a same-sex relationship to his fans. He added that fans of all ages visited his cafe to honour the late icon, and he said there was a whole new generation of people discovering Cheung’s work after his death. Readers in the US are encouraged to contact the [ National Suicide Prevention Line](http://www.suicidepreventionlifeline.org/) on 1-800-273-8255. But Travis Kong, an associate professor of sociology researching gay culture at the University of Hong Kong, told BBC Chinese in 2018 that [queer](https://thepinknews.com/topic/queer/) men were still being called “AIDS man” and “pervert” in the 1990s. The cafe was named after Cheung’s love ballad “For Your Heart Only” and opened in 2007. He took his first steps into the music industry in 1977 after he performed Don McLean’s hit song “American Pie” for a singing competition. His defining performance came in a 1997 concert where he danced intimately with a male dancer to his song “Red”. Despite his later superstar status, Cheung said he was initially not a popular singer. Cheung initially followed in his father’s footsteps and studied textile management at university. Cheung lived his truth openly during a time when the LGBTQ+ community was heavily persecuted. He gained international attention with his portrayal of Cheng Dieyi, an androgynous Peking Opera star, in the 1993 film Farewell My Concubine.

20 years after his death, Dazed remembers an infallible Hong Kong superstar and queer icon through seven of his most unforgettable movies.

Happy Together was unprecedented at the time of its release – with the intense gay lovemaking scene that opens the film ensuring a ban in China, South Korea and other parts of Asia. Cue a wildly creative and comic satire of the more salacious side of the industry in Viva Erotica, which stars Cheung as a washed-up filmmaker who attempts to restore his reputation by making It is in these moments, then, that the audience can appreciate the star for who he was in his final days: radiant, dashing, and profoundly endearing in his mid-40s, and possessing a gravitas that could elevate even an unspectacular film. At Cannes, it became the first (and, to date, the only) Chinese-language production to win the Palme d’Or – a prize shared it shared that year with Jane Campion’s The Piano. Their blossoming romance, though, is doomed – and half a century later, Fleur mysteriously re-emerges in the city’s 80s concrete metropolis to search for her long-lost lover with the help of a local newspaper owner. A Better Tomorrow was a founding feature in the hugely impactful “heroic bloodshed” genre – which would ignite Hong Kong and Hollywood through its gratuitous action, stylised violence, melodrama, and sassy dialogue, launching director John Woo (Face/Off) and his cast to stardom. And though he would not receive a prize himself, Mui and Kwan were both winners at the Hong Kong Film Awards the following year, where the hit drama also beat Wong Kar-wai’s debut As Tears Go By to take home the coveted Best Film gong. But before long, the past catches up with him, and the bullets begin to fly – testing the bonds of brotherhood (both familial and fraternal) to the extreme. At the height of the country’s cinematic golden age in 1987, ‘Second Wave’ filmmaker Stanley Kwan, later Hong Kong’s first major openly gay director, cast Cheung opposite one of his closest friends in a landmark film. By the end of the week, as the news rippled across Asia, his casket was being visited by thousands of mourners, who queued along the streets singing his songs, in a scene that resembled that of the passing of a monarch. On the 20th anniversary of his death, Dazed remembers an infallible Hong Kong superstar and queer icon through seven of his most unforgettable films. Stricken with stomach issues, insomnia, and trembling, Cheung had been downbeat about the decline of the Hong Kong film industry – which, like the wider economy, was in crisis.

Fans of late Canto-pop icon Leslie Cheung, one of the first singers to come out as gay in Hong Kong, flocked to the city this week to commemorate their ...

University student Justin Jiang said he was only 3 years old when Cheung died, but he later became a fan in high school after learning more about Cheung’s personality and charisma from his legacy of works. Cheung also broke through the city’s cultural status quo by boldly revealing his gay relationship in a conservative local society at that time— a decision that could have ruined his career but has earned him a lot of respect from the gay community, Fung said. The 20th anniversary of Cheung’s death was Saturday and drew crowds of both local fans and supporters from mainland China to visit exhibitions about him in Hong Kong. His death came as his hometown was battling the SARS epidemic, which ultimately killed hundreds and crippled the local economy. Cheung, who was affectionately known as Gor Gor — “big brother” in Cantonese — produced many hits that even non-Cantonese speaking music lovers in other parts of Asia could sing along to. “I said ‘don’t make such a joke on April Fools’ Day’,” she said.

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College student Justin Jiang said he was only 3 years old when Cheung died, but later became a fan in high school after learning more about Cheung’s personality and charisma from his legacy of works. Fung said Cheung also broke the city’s cultural status quo by boldly revealing his homosexuality in a conservative local community at the time—a decision that could have ruined his career but won him a lot of respect from the gay community. Hong Kong fan Connie Leung, now retired in her 60s, recalled her disbelief when she first heard the news of his death from a former colleague. His death came as his hometown was battling the SARS epidemic, which eventually killed hundreds and crippled the local economy. The government has even included concerts and film screenings of him in the city’s first ever popular culture festival, which is set to officially kick off in three weeks. His supporters, who stretched across Asia, fondly remembered his anti-normative works and called him “precocious”.