Fandom (10)--An Idiosyncratic View From the Inside

With a Little Help From His Friends (3)Anita Mui and Leslie Cheung -- A Friendship For the AgesIt is a common complaint in the entertainment industry that the brighter a celebrity's star shines, the more difficult it is to gauge who is a true friend and who is simply basking in the borrowed glow of another's stardom. Leslie Cheung was very lucky that he had many t...Read more

April is the Cruelest Month

The poet T.S. Eliot wrote, "April is the cruelest month." He did not lie. For fans of Leslie Cheung (Cheung Gwok Wing), Gor Gor (elder brother), April first will never again be what it was before April 1, 2003. That was the day on which Leslie Cheung committed suicide by jumping off the 24th floor of the Mandarin Oriental Hotel in Central District, Hong Kong. In the lives of his long-time fans, it was as if time stopped. For them, it was the day "the music died."  Prophetic, perhaps, as Leslie sang Don McLean&#...Read more

A new book about Leslie and Farewell My Concubine

My review of Helen Leung's book, Farewell My Concubine, about the iconic film, is up over at HKCinemagic.  She dedicates the book to Leslie Cheung and has a lot to say about Leslie, the film and the reality of dan performers (men playing female roles) in Beijing Opera.  A very good book for any fan of Leslie, the film or Chinese and Hong Kong cinema.Read more

Remembering Leslie Cheung 4-01-11

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Shining Star

 #

Brightest star above the

Fragrant harbor,

Jewel of the night

Casting your steady light

Far away – so close

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Fandom (9)--An Idiosyncratic View From the Inside

With A Little Help From His Friends (2)with Anthony WongIn 2001 Leslie and Anthony Wong, along with many other Hong Kong singing stars, participated in the performance of a charity single, "Getting Through Winter Together".  

Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zhtURbezSKoAn executive at Universal Music was impressed with the brief duet that Leslie and Anthony sang and suggested that they should do a collaborative ...Read more

Fandom (8)--An Idiosyncratic View From the Inside

With a Little Help From His Friends (Part 1) In pop music there has always been the idea that if one is good, two are better. Perhaps this is the genesis of the idea of pairing two top-selling artists in a duet. Bringing together a man and a woman, especially if they are young and attractive (and young and attractive stars defined Cantopop in the 1980s), means a romantic d...Read more

The Rise of Johnnie To

One of the reasons I haven't been blogging much the past 6-8 months is because I've been working on a long article about Hong Kong filmmaker Johnnie To. Afraid someone would steal my thunder, my idea, or at least beat me to the punch with their own article on this topic when they saw what I had in the works, I kept very mum about what I was up to.  Basically, only my editor and some close fr...Read more

Fandom (7)--An Idiosyncratic View From the Inside

He's a Woman, She's a Man (Part 3) Once Leslie relaunched his music career, he was not shy about projecting a flamboyant image in his videos and on stage. Here is the opening of the 1997 World Concert Tour. A series of unveilings takes place in quick succession. First the sides of the crystal pyramid (patterned after a similar crystal pyramid at the Louvre Museum i...Read more

Fandom (6)--An Idiosyncratic View From the Inside

He's a Woman, She's a Man (Part 2) There are many examples of Leslie embodying gender difference on celluloid. In addition to the character of Chen Dieyi in Farewell, My Concubine, there other film roles and, equally important, several music videos in which Leslie explores a sexuality that is not mainstream hetereosexual.One of Leslie's most important music vid...Read more

Fandom (5)--An idiosyncratic view from the inside

He's a Woman, She's a Man (Part 1)One of the things I find most fascinating about Leslie Cheung is his ability to incarnate a man, a woman or a mix of both at once.  Leslie seems to have always had this quality, which I wouldn't describe as strictly androgyny, as that implies more a blend of both male and female characteristics into some new expression of gender.  Rather, Leslie seemed to be able to express everything on the spectrum from ultra masculine to ultra feminine, changing from one to the...Read more