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1. Early Stardom: Constructing “Gor-Gor”

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1. Early Stardom: Constructing “Gor-Gor”

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Cheung’s early idol persona was a product of Hong Kong’s media and music industries, where intimacy was carefully manufactured. The nickname “Gor-Gor” (meaning “older brother” in Cantonese) embodied a culturally specific form of affection, transforming a distant pop star into a familiar emotional figure for fans.

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The album cover of The Wind Blows On, 1983

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The Wind Blows On: The Sound of Early Stardom

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The Wind Blows On: The Sound of Early Stardom

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Released in 1983, The Wind Blows On captured the tender melancholy that defined Leslie Cheung’s early stardom. Through its emotional restraint and lyrical sincerity, the song transformed him from a rising idol into “Gor-Gor”, a symbol of intimacy and vulnerability that would shape his public image for decades.

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Leslie (1984) : Solidifying the Star Persona

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Leslie (1984) : Solidifying the Star Persona

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Released in 1984, Leslie solidified Cheung’s transformation from a television idol to a pop icon. With its hit track “Monica,” the album showcased his charisma, modernity, and emotional warmth — qualities that deepened the “Gor-Gor” persona. This moment marked the full emergence of his stardom and the beginning of his cultural myth.

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The 1984 hit “Monica” turned Leslie Cheung into a full-fledged pop idol.

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Monica | 張國榮 Leslie Cheung | Official Music Video | 詞：黎彼得   | 曲：NOBODY

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By 1984, Leslie Cheung had become Hong Kong’s most celebrated teen idol. Magazines and TV shows branded him as the “idol king,” highlighting his charm, style, and emotional accessibility. This moment reflects how the city’s expanding entertainment industry constructed “Gor-Gor” through branding and media spectacle, turning intimacy into a commercial image of romance and youth.

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2. Artistry and Transformation: From Idol to Artist

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2. Artistry and Transformation: From Idol to Artist

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Moving beyond the constraints of 1980s idol culture, Leslie Cheung sought to redefine himself as an artist rather than a commodity. His 1989 “Final Encounter” concert and later return to the stage revealed a deliberate resistance to the machinery of fame. Through film, music, and performance, Cheung transformed authenticity into an act of creation — a rebellion against the system that once made him.

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In 1989, this concert marked his temporary exit from the pop idol system.

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1989 “Final Encounter” Concert: Saying Goodbye to the Idol

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1989 “Final Encounter” Concert: Saying Goodbye to the Idol

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In 1989, Cheung’s Final Encounter concert marked his decision to leave the music industry at its height. Amid tears and farewell songs, he publicly resisted the commodified idol system that had made him famous. His departure was less an ending than a search for artistic freedom — a moment of authentic self-definition.

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In 1995, Leslie Cheung officially announced his comeback to the music scene after releasing the album "Beloved".

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In 1995, Leslie Cheung officially returned to the music scene with his comeback album Beloved. The release marked a shift from idol performance to emotional authorship — his voice now carrying introspection, maturity, and calm defiance. Through Beloved, Cheung reclaimed creative control and reaffirmed his pursuit of sincerity within an industry driven by spectacle.

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the album cover of Countdown With You (1999)

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Countdown With You (1999): The Intimacy of Late Stardom

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Countdown With You (1999): The Intimacy of Late Stardom

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Released on 13 October 1999, Countdown With You marked Leslie Cheung’s return to the studio with a mature yet intimate sound. Blending pop sensibility with reflective lyrics, the album reinforced his “Gor-Gor” persona while showing a more introspective artist emerging. It became a milestone in his late career and a poignant reminder of his emotional resonance.

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the poster of A Chinese Ghost Story (1987)

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A Chinese Ghost Story (1987):  Romantic Fantasy and the Gentle Masculine

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A Chinese Ghost Story (1987):  Romantic Fantasy and the Gentle Masculine

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In A Chinese Ghost Story, Cheung’s portrayal of Ning Caichen redefined the romantic male archetype. His soft-spoken vulnerability and poetic presence contrasted with Hong Kong’s hypermasculine stars of the time. The film merged pop aesthetics and lyrical fantasy, turning gentleness into charisma and marking his first artistic break from idol conventions.

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Days of Being Wild (1990): Alienation and Self-Reflexivity

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Days of Being Wild (1990): Alienation and Self-Reflexivity

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Wong Kar-wai’s Days of Being Wild marked Cheung’s full transformation into an auteur actor. As the drifting Yuddy, he performed loneliness and desire with haunting restraint. The film stripped away celebrity glamour, exposing fragility beneath the surface. Here, authenticity emerged not from confession but from controlled, cinematic distance.

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Farewell My Concubine (1993): Performing Pain and Identity

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Farewell My Concubine (1993): Performing Pain and Identity

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Cheung’s role as Cheng Dieyi in Farewell My Concubine stands as a pinnacle of his artistry. The performance blurred the line between gender and identity, between self and character. Through Dieyi’s tragic devotion, Cheung turned vulnerability into power — embodying Redmond’s idea of “authenticity as performance.”

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Happy Together (1997): Queer Intimacy and Emotional Freedom

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Happy Together (1997): Queer Intimacy and Emotional Freedom

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In Happy Together, Cheung’s portrayal of Ho Po-wing gave queer love unprecedented emotional depth in Asian cinema. His expressive fragility and restless longing redefined intimacy as both painful and liberating. The film’s raw authenticity reflected his courage to live and perform beyond heteronormative confines.

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Stop Playing Games (1991) — An introspective album where Cheung turned his resistance into lyrical reflection, questioning fame and the emotional cost of being an idol.

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Music as Resistance: Side Face & Stop Playing Games

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Music as Resistance: Side Face & Stop Playing Games

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In albums like Side Face (1990) and Stop Playing Games (1991), Cheung used lyrics and composition to question fame and identity. His music became a medium of resistance: tender, introspective, yet defiant against the pressures of image and marketability.

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Pepsi, 1986: Asia’s First Pepsi Megastar

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Pepsi, 1986: Asia’s First Pepsi Megastar

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In 1986, Leslie Cheung became the first “Pepsi Megastar” in Asia, representing a new kind of regional stardom that fused pop culture and consumerism. The campaign celebrated his image as youthful, stylish, and modern — transforming “Gor-Gor” into a symbol of aspiration for a globalizing generation.

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For Your Heart Only (1985): The Making of a Romantic Idol

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For Your Heart Only (1985): The Making of a Romantic Idol

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For Your Heart Only reinforced Cheung's ‘idol lover’ persona. His romantic screen presence echoed his pop songs, producing an integrated image of sincerity, youth, and emotional accessibility.

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1980s Magazine Covers: The Media Construction

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1980s Magazine Covers: The Media Construction

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Cover appearances in Hong Kong’s youth entertainment magazines during 1983-85 helped construct Leslie Cheung’s ‘Gor-Gor’ brand — combining youth, romance, and approachable glamour.

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3. Gender Fluidity and Queer Visibility: Performing the Unfixed Self

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3. Gender Fluidity and Queer Visibility: Performing the Unfixed Self

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Through both stage aesthetics and film roles, Leslie Cheung turned gender fluidity into a performative language of resistance. From Farewell My Concubine’s androgynous grace to the queer intimacy of Happy Together and the flamboyant self-styling of his Passion Tour, Cheung’s body became a canvas where masculinity, femininity, and authenticity intertwined.

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Passion Tour (1997): Red Dress & Feather Couture

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Passion Tour (1997): Red Dress & Feather Couture

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On his 1997 Passion Tour, Leslie Cheung appeared in red gowns and feathered couture, transforming gender performance into both spectacle and sincerity. By merging flamboyance with emotional truth, he made androgyny beautiful — and visibility an act of love.

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Media & Public Discourse: “Asia’s Most Daring Stage”

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Media & Public Discourse: “Asia’s Most Daring Stage”

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Press labels such as “Androgyny” shaped the public narrative around Cheung’s gender fluidity. Media discourse and fan commentary together framed queerness as fashionable, credible, and visible in mainstream Hong Kong pop culture.

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Cheung joined the lineage of icons like David Bowie and Prince who used androgyny to challenge norms. He localised this global grammar—casting queerness not as exotic but as elegant, intimate, and Hong Kong-specific.

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Leslie Cheung and Daffy Tong’s epic love story

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Leslie Cheung and Daffy Tong’s epic love story

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Visibility itself became an act of courage, and affection a performance of authenticity.

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April 1 holds a tragic memory in Hong Kong showbiz, as it's the day that the talented and well-loved Canto-pop singer and actor Leslie Cheung Kwok-wing passed away. The news of his death in 2003 shocked fans and peers worldwide, but his momentous career lives on and his work and legacy continues to be celebrated today.

Years have passed since the loss of a great talent, but Cheung's romantic partner Daffy Tong Hok-tak still pays tribute to the love of his life regularly on social media. This year marks the 19th anniversary of the death of our "Gor Gor", so let's revisit the love story between the duo as a way of remembering the beloved superstar.

Cheung and Tong knew each other from a young age, but the two reconnected when they met again at the Regent Hotel in 1982, according to Hong Kong media outlet HK01. It was reportedly love at first sight and the two soon became a couple, starting a relationship that spanned over two decades until the star's death.

In the early days of the relationship, Tong was the one supporting Cheung financially. Later in interviews, Cheung would often declare his gratitude for his partner's support.

The two were first seen together in public attending a tennis match in 1992, according to HK01. They kept their relationship quiet, but Cheung would occasionally share glimpses into his love life. He would not mention the name or gender of his partner, although most fans and the public were aware of "Mr. Tong".

During his concert at the Hong Kong Coliseum in 1997, Cheung sang the love song The Moon Represents My Heart and dedicated it to Tong, who was in the audience. He referred him as "my good friend Mr. Tong", saying Tong held a very important place in his life. Many would consider this moment as the first coming out of Cheung and an official recognition of their relationship.

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Hong Kong icon Leslie Cheung and Daffy Tong's epic love story

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April 1 marks the 19th anniversary of the death of Hong Kong icon Leslie Cheung, commemorated annually by fans - and his long-time partner, Daffy Tong

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Leslie Cheung & Daffy Tong: Public Affection, Queer Visibility

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Leslie Cheung & Daffy Tong: Public Affection, Queer Visibility

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Leslie Cheung’s twenty-year relationship with Daffy Tong brought queer intimacy into the public eye in Hong Kong pop culture. His 1997 concert tribute to Tong and interviews acknowledging bisexuality reframed celebrity closeness as a sincere partnership rather than a hidden secret.

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In his 1992 interview, Cheung declared his heart was bisexual, turning the private into the public and commandingly naming his own identity.

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Interviews & Public Speech: Naming the Self

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Interviews & Public Speech: Naming the Self

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Through candid interviews and on-stage remarks, Leslie Cheung used language to claim himself. His words about love, freedom, and identity turned confession into performance, proving that authenticity can be spoken as much as shown.

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SHOCK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  Hong Kong  Male Super Star  Concert suddenly...RED lipstick + RED high heels

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Fans & Reception: From Shock to Shared Aesthetic

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Fans & Reception: From Shock to Shared Aesthetic

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Early surprise gave way to affection and emulation: fan art, cosplay, and concert dress-codes turned androgyny into a participatory style. Visibility circulated through bodies, not just the star’s but the audience’s.

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Tong's post on Instagram after Cheung's death: Who could replace you?

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Eternal Love: Daffy Tong’s Public Remembrance

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Eternal Love: Daffy Tong’s Public Remembrance

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Since Leslie Cheung’s passing in 2003, his partner Daffy Tong has kept their love visible through public tributes, writings, and annual remembrances. From his 2013 preface quoting Su Shi’s Jiang Cheng Zi to his yearly April 1 posts and appearances at memorial concerts, Tong transformed private grief into enduring affection. His words—“Only love is eternal”—turn mourning into dialogue, proving that queer intimacy continues to exist through memory, visibility, and devotion.

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Public Intimacy and the Burden of Authenticity

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Public Intimacy and the Burden of Authenticity

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In 2024, rumors about Daffy Tong’s new relationship circulated online, leading to accusations that he was “betraying” Leslie Cheung. After posting a statement denying the rumors and privatizing his Instagram, Tong once again became the target of the public’s gaze. This incident reveals the paradox of authenticity in celebrity culture: when private love becomes a public myth, every act of living is read as performance. Queer grief thus exists under surveillance — where sincerity itself is never safe from interpretation.

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4. Vulnerability and Authenticity: Performing Emotional Truth

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4. Vulnerability and Authenticity: Performing Emotional Truth

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Leslie Cheung’s most powerful performances were those that exposed his fragility. Through tears, pauses, and moments of confession on stage and in interviews, he turned vulnerability into authenticity. This affective labour, which means his willingness to feel publicly, became a key part of his star image. Following Sean Redmond’s idea of performed sincerity, Cheung’s emotional openness was not the opposite of performance but its most truthful form, where artifice and feeling coexisted without contradiction.

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The Stage of Tears: Affective Labour in the 2000 Passion Tour

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The Stage of Tears: Affective Labour in the 2000 Passion Tour

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During his final Passion Tour performances, Cheung repeatedly thanked his fans and wept onstage. These moments, rather than staged spectacle, became a public performance of intimacy. His emotional exposure produced a sense of shared sincerity—proof that affect itself had become the labour sustaining his stardom.

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哥哥张国荣《热情演唱会》珍藏版

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Lyrics of Loneliness: Songs as Confessional Texts

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Lyrics of Loneliness: Songs as Confessional Texts

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In songs like “I” (我), “Glass Love” (玻璃之情), and “Loneliness Hurts” (寂寞有害), Cheung’s lyrics became confessional scripts of fragility. They reveal a voice searching for belonging and peace amid public scrutiny, transforming pop music into a psychological autobiography.

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Interviews and Confessions: Loneliness Under the Spotlight

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Interviews and Confessions: Loneliness Under the Spotlight

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In a 1990 episode of Now Showing: No Reservations, Leslie Cheung spoke with writers Ni Kuang, Cai Lan and James Wong about fame, loneliness and the pressure to “stay strong.” Rather than a promotional appearance, the talk revealed his weariness with constant self-exposure: “I don’t like explaining myself — once I explain, it’s no longer me.” The conversation transformed a TV interview into an act of self-reflection, showing how authenticity can emerge through controlled vulnerability.

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【张国荣 Leslie Cheung】 今夜不设防  1989【粤语中字】720P

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【足本版訪問重溫】毛舜筠訪問張國榮Part 1 

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Bisexual Visibility: Early Relationships and the Fluid Self

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Bisexual Visibility: Early Relationships and the Fluid Self

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Before publicly embracing his same-sex relationship with Daffy Tong, Leslie Cheung had dated several women in the entertainment industry, including his first love Teresa Mo Shan-pei, Mao Shun-jun (Mo Shun-Kwan), Yang No See, and Tang Wai See. At 22, he even proposed to Mao Shun-jun, but she declined. These early heterosexual relationships complicate simplistic labels of “gay icon”: they show Cheung’s fluid and open approach to desire, where gender was less a boundary than a spectrum of connection.

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【足本版訪問重溫】毛舜筠訪問張國榮Part 1

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The Beautiful Tragedy: When Suffering Becomes Myth

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The Beautiful Tragedy: When Suffering Becomes Myth

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On April 1, 2003, Leslie Cheung jumped from the 24th floor of the Mandarin Oriental Hotel in Hong Kong and died at 46. His manager confirmed that he had been suffering from endogenous depression — a neurochemical illness, not triggered by external events. Yet during his lifetime, the condition remained hidden in a culture that stigmatized male vulnerability. The media at first treated the news as an April Fool’s joke; later, it turned his pain into a romantic myth. Between silence and spectacle, Cheung’s death revealed a society unable to face mental illness, where sincerity and suffering were both aestheticised and misunderstood.

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5. Fandom and Affective Afterlife: Love Beyond Loss

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5. Fandom and Affective Afterlife: Love Beyond Loss

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After Leslie Cheung’s death, his fans transformed grief into an enduring form of love. Every April 1, thousands gather outside the Mandarin Oriental Hotel and across online spaces to sing, draw, remix, and remember. Through memorial acts, creative tributes, and digital archives, the fandom keeps its affective presence alive. This “afterlife of emotion” turns mourning into community—what Matt Hills calls an affective fandom, where shared feeling becomes both remembrance and resistance to forgetting.

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Rituals of Remembrance: Annual April 1 Gatherings

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Rituals of Remembrance: Annual April 1 Gatherings

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Every April 1 since 2003, fans have gathered outside the Mandarin Oriental Hotel and in Hong Kong’s Causeway Bay to mourn Leslie Cheung. Flowers, letters, songs, and banners transform public space into a living memorial. The ritual acts not only as grief but as repetition of love—what Hills (2002) calls “affective fandom,” where emotion is performed collectively to sustain belonging.

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Creative Afterlife: Fan Art and Remix Culture

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Creative Afterlife: Fan Art and Remix Culture

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Fans translate Cheung’s image into new artistic forms—digital paintings, handmade objects, Bilibili video montages, and animated tributes. These re-creations extend his aura beyond time, forming what Sandvoss (2005) describes as an “intimate mirror” between idol and fan. Through art, grief becomes participation.

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Weibo as an online space of remembrance 

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Digital Shrines: Online Spaces of Remembrance

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Digital Shrines: Online Spaces of Remembrance

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On social media platforms like Weibo, Instagram, and YouTube, fans build virtual shrines—hashtags such as #MissYouLeslie and #继续宠爱 (continue to beloved) collect millions of posts. Digital fandom creates an eternal now, where time collapses into memory and presence.

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Faith and Devotion: The Sacred Language of Love

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Faith and Devotion: The Sacred Language of Love

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The rituals around Cheung’s memory often carry religious imagery: fans call him “Gor Gor” like a saintly figure, light candles, and offer prayers. This spiritualization illustrates how fandom operates as a community of affect and belief, transforming love into devotion and remembrance into ritual faith.

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Continuing the Feeling: Emotional Legacy and Connection

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Continuing the Feeling: Emotional Legacy and Connection

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Two decades on, new generations of fans, many born after 2003, continue to discover Cheung through digital archives. Their affection proves that emotion itself can outlive a life. Fandom becomes a bridge across time, where shared feeling sustains presence beyond death.

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彭奕而 | 00後張國榮粉絲 | 美紙 | 與張國榮的紙上憶記

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Continue to Beloved: Leslie Cheung Memorial Exhibition

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Continue to Beloved: Leslie Cheung Memorial Exhibition

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免費入場

二樓 展示空間
2023年3月29日-2023年10月9日

康樂及文化事務署主辦
香港文化博物館籌劃
客席策展人：陳淑芬、張叔平、夏永康
支持單位：「哥」迷會

「繼續寵愛・張國榮紀念展」紀念一代巨星張國榮逝世20週年。張國榮三位生前摯友及客席策展人- 陳淑芬、張叔平及夏永康，透過Leslie 的私人珍藏、精心設計的展場及一張張觸動人心的舊照片，與大家一起回顧哥哥的演藝成就，及其對香港流行文化的影響，為當年情再度添上新鮮。

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二樓 展示空間 2023年3月29日-2023年10月9日 康樂及文化事務署主辦香港文化博物館籌劃客席策展人：陳淑芬、張叔平、夏永康支持單位：「哥」迷會 「繼續寵愛・張國榮紀念展」紀念一代巨星張國榮逝世20週年。張國榮三位生前摯友及客席策展人- 陳淑芬、張叔平及夏永康，透過Leslie ...

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6. Transcultural Identity and Hong Kong Legacy: The Global Afterimage of Leslie Cheung

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6. Transcultural Identity and Hong Kong Legacy: The Global Afterimage of Leslie Cheung

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Leslie Cheung was more than a Hong Kong star — he was a postcolonial icon of hybridity. Fluent in English and Cantonese, he embodied the contradictions of Hong Kong’s in-between identity: modern yet nostalgic, local yet global. From Happy Together to Ashes of Time, his films captured the anxieties of a city negotiating its return to China and its place in the world. International critics from Cannes to Time and Variety recognised in him a cosmopolitan charisma that transcended borders — what Stuart Hall would call “cultural identity as becoming.”

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Ashes of Time Redux (Web Exclusive) 
Reviewed by Martha P. Nochimson

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Hong Kong’s Hybridity: Identity in Between

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Hong Kong’s Hybridity: Identity in Between

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Cheung personified the hybrid identity of 1990s Hong Kong: colonial yet self-assertive, cosmopolitan yet nostalgic. His bilingual fluency and Western-inspired fashion embodied what Homi Bhabha calls the “third space”: a site where cultures meet and re-invent. Through his music and persona, he made this “in-between state” not a crisis but a style of existence.

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Ashes of Time Redux (Web Exclusive) — Cineaste Magazine

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Cineaste: America’s Leading Magazine on the Art and Politics of the Cinema

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Postcolonial Cinema: The World through Hong Kong

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Postcolonial Cinema: The World through Hong Kong

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Films such as Happy Together and Ashes of Time turned Cheung into a cinematic symbol of displacement and longing. In Wong Kar-wai’s lens, his melancholy mirrored Hong Kong’s uncertainty before and after the 1997 handover. His characters: lovers in exile, souls in transit, speak to a broader postcolonial condition of yearning and identity fracture.

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Global Circulation: From Cannes to Seoul to Tokyo

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Global Circulation: From Cannes to Seoul to Tokyo

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Cheung’s popularity crossed Asia and reached global film festivals. He was featured in Time, Variety, and Cannes programs as “Asia’s most charismatic star.” In Japan and Korea, his albums topped charts and his films inspired new queer readings. His cosmopolitan image challenged the idea that Hong Kong culture was merely local — it was already transcultural.

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Naming the Self: Leslie and the Fluid Identity

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Naming the Self: Leslie and the Fluid Identity

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Cheung chose the English name “Leslie” after British actor Leslie Howard from Gone with the Wind. The name, shared by both men and women, reflects the gentle ambiguity that later defined his persona. To name oneself “Leslie” was to blur the gendered boundary of identity — a quiet act of self-performance long before he became Asia’s queer icon.

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From left are Zhang Fengyi, Gongli, and Leslie Cheung at the 46th Cannes Film Festival in 1993

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A photo shows Cheng Kaige (center) directing Zhang Fengyi and Leslie Cheung on the set of Farewell My Concubine

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A Legacy beyond Borders: Cultural Identity as Becoming

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A Legacy beyond Borders: Cultural Identity as Becoming

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Two decades after his death, Cheung remains a cultural touchstone for a global Hong Kong diaspora. His hybridity mirrors the city’s own fluid identity — forever in motion, forever becoming. As Stuart Hall writes, cultural identity is not a fixed origin but a continuous production. Cheung’s afterimage still circulates across languages and borders, reminding the world that Hong Kong’s most enduring export is feeling itself.

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张国荣的性别遗产：15年后仍然领先时代 - BBC News 中文

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在生命中最后几年，“哥哥”张国荣不断挑战保守价值，拓阔社会的性别想像；他死后多年，华语世界才追上他当年超前的步伐。

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Born in colonial Hong Kong to a tailor who dressed Hollywood stars, Leslie Cheung grew up between cultures. Fluent in English and trained in Western literature, he embodied hybridity long before fame. His years studying in Leeds, England, shaped a cosmopolitan outlook but also exposed the emotional distance between East and West. The young “Bobby Cheung” would later become “Leslie Cheung” — a name that signified a self both global and local, modern yet deeply personal.