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The twentieth anniversary of Cheung’s dying on Saturday drew crowds of each native followers and supporters from mainland China to go to exhibitions about him in Hong Kong. Even the federal government included live shows and movie screenings about him within the metropolis’s first popular culture pageant, which is slated to formally kick off in three weeks.
Outdoors of the official reveals, a gradual stream of followers visited the Mandarin Oriental Lodge, the place Cheung had killed himself. The slim strip of pavement subsequent to the lodge was utterly lined by a sea of flowers, playing cards, origami and posters.
The native reminiscences of Cheung show the late movie star stays a well-liked icon throughout generations of Hong Kongers and displays the will for reviving the town’s cultural affect, stated Anthony Fung, professor of the varsity of journalism and communication on the Chinese language College of Hong Kong.
“After so a few years, we hardly discover any new icons, new superstars who may attain that degree of significance,” he stated.
Cheung, who was affectionately generally known as Gor Gor — “large brother” in Cantonese — produced many hits that even non-Cantonese talking music lovers in different components of Asia may sing alongside to. These embrace “Monica,” “Sleepless Nights Stressed Coronary heart” and “Chase.” He additionally starred in basic movies together with John Woo’s “A Higher Tomorrow,” Wong Kar-wai’s “Completely satisfied Collectively,” Stanley Kwan’s “Rouge” and Chen Kaige’s “Farewell My Concubine.”
However behind all of his success, Cheung suffered from melancholy. He jumped to his dying from the Mandarin Oriental Lodge in central Hong Kong on April 1 in 2003, sending shockwaves throughout the town. His dying got here as his hometown was battling the SARS epidemic, which finally killed tons of and crippled the native financial system.
“We actually miss him. His songs and movies take us again to the great time of Hong Kong which isn’t the identical as these days. We’ll miss it,” stated Justin Cho, a fan from the town who got here together with his good friend to put flowers on the lodge in honor of the actor.
Hong Kong fan Connie Leung, a retiree now in her 60s, recalled her disbelief when she first heard in regards to the information of his dying from a former colleague. “I stated ‘don’t make such a joke on April Fools’ Day’,” she stated.
She stated Cheung’s songs by no means grew to become outdated and his trend tastes, together with his iconic lengthy hair, had been trendy — even by at the moment’s requirements.
Chris Choi, Cheung’s live performance choreographer within the 2000s, stated the late celebrity broke by way of many gender boundaries by introducing “unisex” concepts, a few of which had been dangerous on the time. Amongst his stage costumes, for instance, had been seashell culottes and crimson excessive heels.
“It instructed individuals artwork has no boundaries,” he stated.
Cheung additionally broke by way of the town’s cultural established order by boldly revealing his homosexual relationship in a conservative native society at the moment— a choice that would have ruined his profession however has earned him a variety of respect from the homosexual neighborhood, Fung stated. The breakthrough was in regards to the plurality of tradition that he celebrated, he stated.
“He really crossed by way of the boundary, make a noise and affect on the tradition of Hong Kong,” Fung stated.
Cheung’s work not solely impressed older generations of followers but in addition those that had been simply toddlers when he died.
College pupil Justin Jiang stated he was solely 3 years previous when Cheung died, however he later grew to become a fan in highschool after studying extra about Cheung’s persona and charisma from his legacy of works. This week, the 22-year-old, who lives in neighboring Guangzhou, visited Hong Kong with a good friend to pay tribute to his idol.
He praised Cheung’s boldness in expressing his views and breaking by way of a society strongly influenced by gender stereotypes years in the past.
“Gor Gor could be very brave and that is price studying for us,” he stated.
Related Press video journalist Alice Fung contributed to this report.
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