Mandarin Oriental Hong Kong (Photos: Sing Tao)
Mandarin Oriental Hong Kong (Photos: Sing Tao)
April
1st, 2003
Tue
April 1st, 2003 11:32 a.m. ET
HONG KONG (Reuters) - Cantonese pop star and actor Leslie Cheung Kwok Wing, who
starred in the hit film Farewell My Concubine, jumped to his death in
Hong Kong on Tuesday, a police source said.
Cheung, 46, jumped from the landmark Mandarin Oriental hotel in the central
business district early in the evening and left a suicide note, the source, who
spoke on condition of anonymity, told Reuters.
A police spokeswoman said a 46-year-old man with the surname Cheung plunged to
his death from the hotel in the early evening, but declined to reveal the full
name.
"The man was certified dead at hospital. His name is Cheung 'X' Wing and
was aged 46. He left a suicide letter", she said, declining to give
details.
(Text: Reuters)
Newspapers (Photo: Sina)
Leslie Cheung turned 46 last
September 12, and will forever stay that age, no older. (...) On Tuesday he
strode through the Mandarin Oriental lobby, took a room on the 24th floor,
walked out onto the terrace that gives a view of Hong Kong Harbor, and jumped
off. He landed in front of the hotel on the Connaught Road sidewalk and was
pronounced dead at a local hospital at 7:05 p.m.
(Text: Time)
Mandarin Oriental
(Photos: The Straits Times)
In a region already unnerved by
the outbreak of the SARS contagion, the reaction to Leslie's dreadful April
Fool's shock was swift and volcanic.
(Text: Time)
Mandarin Oriental (Photo: China Times)
Mandarin Oriental (Photo: China Times)
Since his death, fans have laid
flowers outside the Mandarin Oriental and his residence in Kowloon, while
television stations and radio stations have played his films and hit songs.
(Text: The Straits Times)
Leslie Cheung's House
(Photo: Ming Pao)
Fans,
some weeping inconsolably, called radio phone-in programmes to express their
grief for the singer nicknamed Gor Gor, or elder brother.
(Text: The Straits Times)
Mandarin Oriental
(Photo: Wen Wei Po)
"When I heard the news, I
couldn't believe such a talented person would kill himself. It is a loss to the
movie industry. I thought it was an April Fool's joke." Actor CHOW YUN FAT.
(Text: The Straits Times)
Mandarin Oriental (Photo: Sing Pao)
"Leslie Cheung was a great
artiste and a true friend. He always laughingly called himself a legend, and
sometimes we called him this in jest, but we never thought that the legend would
end in these circumstances. We will always cherish his memory. May he rest in
peace." Director WONG KAR WAI.
(Text: The Straits Times)
Leslie Cheung's House (Photo: Sing Pao)
Mourning gave way to rancor: he
had no right to do this, to deprive us of his brilliance, his overbite, his
presence on earth. A star's magnificence is a gift, not to himself, but to us.
(Text: Time)
Mandarin Oriental (Photo: Sina)
I have no informed idea what
circumstances led Leslie to take his life. But I imagine he felt an artist's
grim pleasure as he determined the form of his suicide.
(Text: Time)
Mandarin Oriental (Photo: Sing Pao)
Those who saw his body claimed
that he looked beautiful when he died. (...) "He looked
like he was just sleeping there." "Leslie always cared about looking
good." "Well, he's an actor, isn't he?"
(Text: Jade Magazine)
Mandarin Oriental (Photo: The Sun)
The day after his death, Cheung’s suicide note was made public. "Depression", he wrote on the balcony.
"Thank you to all my friends. Thank
you Professor Felice Lieh Mak. This year has been tough. I can’t stand it
anymore. Thank you Mr. Tong. Thank you to my family. Thank you to Fat Sister. I
have not done one single bad thing in my life, why is it like that? Leslie."
(Text: Newsweek)
(Photo: Wen Wei Po)
And in a stunning revelation, Mr. Tong disclosed that Leslie had tried to take his life with sleeping pills last
November, but was unsuccessful.
He declined to reveal the reason behind Leslie's first suicide attempt.
(Text: The Electric New Paper)
Mr. Tong Hock Tak (Photo: Ming Pao)
"I knew he was depressed. I spent a lot of time with him,
counselling him." (...)
He added: "There're many things, it's complicated. I know why but I will
not tell. Let's see if his family wants to tell. We'll give the fans and the
public an explanation later."
(Text: The Straits Times)
Mr. Tong Hock Tak (Photo: Sing Pao)
Leslie's
family has decided to open the funeral hall to the public for two hours on
Monday night to allow fans to bid their last farewells.
Leslie's one-hour funeral will be held the next morning. His body will be
cremated but the star's final resting place has not been disclosed.
(Text: The Electric New Paper)
Mandarin Oriental
(Photo: The Washington Post)
April 7th, 2003
From as early as 7 a.m.,
10.000 fans - wearing masks, bearing flowers and
wielding umbrellas - queued to enter the mourning hall and pay their last
respects.
(Text: The Straits Times)
Hong Kong Funeral Home (Photo: Sina)
Hong Kong Funeral Home (Photo: Sing Pao)
So many turned up that Cheung's family extended opening hours to the public -
originally from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. - by two more hours.
(Text: The Straits Times)
Hong Kong Funeral Home (Photo: Yahoo!)
Hong Kong Funeral Home
(Photo: Sina)
Inside the hall, Cheung's snap
from his film He's A Woman, She's A Man rested against one wall. Tong's
floral wreath to him came with two paper ribbons which cited Tang poet Bai
Juyi's two most-loved lines: "Eternity ends. This love continues, never
dying."
(Text: The Straits Times)
Hong Kong Funeral Home
(Photo: Sing Pao)
April 8th, 2003
On a grey Tuesday, fans and friends of late singer-actor Leslie Cheung packed
the Hong Kong Funeral Home at North Point and the streets outside to bid him a
final farewell.
(Text: The Straits Times)
Hong Kong Funeral Home (Photo: Sina)
Hong Kong Funeral Home (Photo: Sina)
Hong Kong Funeral Home (Photo: The Sun)
At about 12:30 p.m., a van covered
with white blossoms and carrying Cheung's coffin sped past his fans, some of
whom had stood on the streets overnight. That was the last they saw of him.
(Text: The Straits Times)
Hong Kong Funeral Home
(Photo: China Times)
Hong Kong Funeral Home
(Photo: China Times)
Farewell my Leslie Cheung
Leslie Cheung danced before us, alluringly, and
only let the seventh veil drop last week, revealing the desperate child beneath
the diva's brilliant plumage.
(Text: Time)
Farewell My Concubine
(Photo: Wen Wei Po)
I'm no scholar of Buddhism, but
couldn't a body, just this once, come back as himself? Leslie could see, then,
how much he was loved, respected, treasured and missed.
(Text: Time)
Mandarin Oriental
(Photo: Wen Wei Po)
Hong Kong Funeral Home
(Photo: Wen Wei Po)
End of an era
Style is becoming something rare; Leslie Cheung's voluntary death bereaves cinema
of one of its most proudly elegant figures.
(Text: Libération)
Farewell My Concubine
(Photo: Wen Wei Po)
Leslie's death - at the height of
a viral epidemic for which there is no known cure - is a blow to Hong Kong's
collective conscience. It is the end of an era: one of vanity, youth-worship,
image-consciousness, self-indulgence, innocence. It is an end to, as one of
Leslie's best films is entitled, Days Of Being Wild.
(Text: Jade Magazine)