Leslie Cheung: Asia's gay symbol lives on 15 years after his death

Leslie Cheung: Asia's gay symbol lives on 15 years after his death

Leslie Cheung was one of one of the most preferred male vocalists as well as actors of the mid-1980s

It's a touching sign of why the daring as well as troubled celebrity is still important today.

One of Hong Kong's most prominent male vocalists as well as stars of the mid-1980s, Leslie Cheung Kwok Wing was not terrified of provoking dispute with his obvious sexuality and intriguing performances during an extra socially conservative period.

And also 15 years after his fatality, Cheung is still drawing in brand-new followers, consisting of teenagers and also millennials.

Lam, a 15-year-old who went to 1 April's vigil, was only a few months old when Cheung passed away. She informed BBC Chinese she had \"uncovered him on YouTube\".

On The Other Hand, 25-year-old Wu took a trip from Hunan district on mainland China with his boyfriend to grieve the symbol.

Wu told BBC Chinese he drew toughness from Cheung's \"spirit of being true to oneself\".

\" He showed the [Chinese-speaking] globe that gay individuals can be positive, bright and deserving of respect.\"

Cinematographer Christopher Doyle states Leslie was \"not only an excellent vocalist or star, but a rarely-seen real celebrity\"

Born in 1956, Leslie Cheung was one of Hong Kong's most popular celebrities throughout the golden age of Cantopop in the 1980s.

He was dashing, trendy as well as fitted the general public idea of an excellent heterosexual male lover. But actually, he was in a long-lasting relationship with his youth buddy, Daffy Tong.

It was not a very easy time to be gay. Back then, homosexuality was still seen by several as an illness as well as problem in Hong Kong, particularly after the appearance of the initial local case of Aids in 1984. It was not till 1991 that adult gay sex was decriminalised in the area.

\" The LGBT movement in Hong Kong removed in the 1990s, when the community ultimately ended up being visible to the general public,\" Travis Kong, an associate teacher of sociology investigating gay society at The University of Hong Kong, told BBC Chinese.

He first pertained to international attention with his portrayal of Cheng Dieyi, the androgynous Peking Opera celebrity, for the film Goodbye My Concubine, which won the Palme d'Or at Cannes in 1993.

He took place to star in Satisfied Together directed by Wong Kar Wai - a gay movie theater timeless regarding a pair that struggle to find a peaceful co-existence.

\" Delighted With each other is various. It is a stereotypical heterosexual romance, yet played by 2 guys,\" said Package Hung, a Hong Kong supervisor.

At The Same Time, Christopher Doyle, the renowned cinematographer who collaborated with Cheung on different Wong Kar Wai movies, informed BBC Chinese: \"He was so lovely. We both wished to communicate through my lens the most attractive, sincerest side of him.

\" He enters our creative imagination audaciously ... constantly revealing us much better opportunities.\"

Leslie Cheung is kept in mind both for his movies and also music performances - and also even has his very own waxwork at Madame Tussauds

On phase, Cheung unleashed a sexually fluid beauty. His defining queer performance came in a 1997 concert where he danced thoroughly with a male professional dancer to his track Red. He put on a black suit with a pair of shimmering crimson high-heels.

At that concert he devoted a timeless love tune to the two \"likes of his life\", his mommy as well as his companion Daffy Tong. This is seen as the minute he came out of the wardrobe. Cheung did not announce his sexuality thus, yet admitted his love for a male.

\" In the 1990s, at times a gay guy was still called 'Aids male' as well as 'deviant',\" claims Mr Kong. \"In a society so oppressive to the LGBT community, the appearing of such a prominent superstar had a significant result on the general public.\"

Regardless of his success across Asia, there were several who did not appreciate this side of Cheung.

At the 1998 Hong Kong Movie Honors, Satisfied With each other was mocked by comedians, that defined it as a movie that would make the audience vomit. A music video he routed, including him topless with a male ballet professional dancer, was also censored by major regional television network TVB.

In 2000 Leslie ended up being the first Oriental celebrity to wear a tailor-made costume by French fashion master Jean-Paul Gaultier in a show. With waist-length hair, clearly noticeable bristle and a muscular develop, Cheung additionally put on tight transparent trousers as well as a short skirt.

He finished the show with his self-revealing ballad I. \"The motif of my performance is this: One of the most crucial thing in life, besides love, is to appreciate your own self,\" he clarified.

\" I will not hide, I will certainly live my life the method I like under the bright light\" he sang. \"I am what I am, firelight of a different colour.\"

However he was dismissed as a \"transvestite\", \"perverted\" or \"haunted by a female ghost\" in regional media. He would certainly reject that objection as surface and also short-sighted.

He remains such an iconic figure in Hong Kong's awakening to LGBT issues that the Mandarin Oriental Resort is also the initial quit of a strolling tour on the city's LGBT background.

It was from here that he jumped to his fatality on 1 April 2003 after a long struggle with clinical depression. It was a stunning minute for the city, and also a devastating minute for fans.

Tens of thousands ended up to bid him farewell as well as at the funeral service, his companion Daffy Tong thought the function typically maintained for the surviving partner, an extensive, public recognition of their connection.

Never ever lawfully married, Mr Tong's was the given name provided on the family's statement of Cheung's fatality, credited \"Love of His Life\".

Same-sex marital relationship or civil unions are still not legal in Hong Kong, however in the city's cumulative memory, Cheung as well as Tong are lovingly remembered as an iconic, loving pair.

Hong Kong still lacks anti-discrimination legislations securing LGBT neighborhoods but queer identification and also sex-related fluidity are no longer so taboo and also become part of the social landscape.

In 2014 a museum in Hong Kong held an event \"Ambiguously Yours: Gender in Hong Kong Popular Culture\". The very first exhibit site visitors come across upon getting in the venue was a pair of gleaming crimson high-heels - the pair Cheung put on executing Red in 1997.

\" The highest possible success for a performer is to symbolize both sexes at the very same time,\" Cheung as soon as proclaimed: \"For art itself is genderless.\"

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