Posted 9:39 AM by Blah blah

Hi Leslie Cheung Fans!

Well the Leslie Cheung fans keep coming and coming here. Would you be kind enough to say hi, either on my Guestmap (on top) or my Guestbook? Please let me know what you think and how you are feeling. Again, I'm very sorry Leslie was taken away from you. Some of you grew up with him, and he was your first celebrity crush, I know. I hope the memorial service helped ease some of your pain. :)

Leslie Cheung Suicide. RIP :(

See Leslie's Pillow for many many links to articles about his death, both Chinese and English.
Photos of Leslie Cheung's Funeral (Yahoo News).

Nicole Tan, on his fan club message board, also translated two touching articles from Chinese about what happened at his funeral. Article 1. Article 2.

Why? The Neuroscience of Suicide (Scientific American).

Since many of you are coming here today for more on Leslie Cheung's suicide coverage, I organize it all here. For a list of good articles on Leslie's death, check here in the Hong Kong Entertainment News in Review. The HKER says:

Leslie Cheung Funeral Information

A private funeral service will be held at the Hong Kong Funeral Home, 979 King's Road, Hong Kong at 11 a.m. on Tuesday, 8th April 2003. Fans who wish to pay their respects are invited to do so on Monday, 7th April 2003 from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m at the Hong Kong Funeral Home.

The cremation takes place on Tuesday, following the last rites from 11 am to noon.

In lieu of flowers, please make donations to the Children's Cancer Foundation or End Child Sexual Abuse Foundation.

Distraught fans of Leslie Cheung pay their last respect (Channel NewsAsia).
Astro to air Cheung’s funeral service (The Star).
Fans can pay their last respects (Straits Times).

For 59 articles on Leslie (and climbing), please go to Google News Entertainment. Also see Yahoo News Full Coverage: Leslie Cheung.

I am very sad to hear that pretty boy Hong Kong actor and pop singer, Leslie Cheung (see his super-cute photos), committed suicide Tuesday, April 1.

Photos from the suicide:
Leslie Cheung's photo in a stretcher, near death. (People's Daily)
Larger version of stretcher photo. (The Sun)
Blood on the street. (Oriental Daily News)

His official website and Internet Fan Club. Sign the memorial page on his official site's message board. Extensive photos of Leslie from his official site.

Listen to Leslie in radio report that aired April 1 in Hong Kong. It has an interview in Cantonese with Leslie before his death.

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No relationship woes (Straits Times): "The former manager of Leslie Cheung has dismissed rumours that the singer-actor took his life because of relationship troubles. Chan Suk Fan, who witnessed his fall last Tuesday, broke her silence and talked to Hongkong's Ming Pao Weekly after reading untrue reports about Cheung's relationship with his boyfriend Daffy Tong. The couple had been happily together since 1982, she said, and Cheung had once told her to take care of Tong on his behalf, should he meet with an accident. She said Cheung had been dogged by bad health in the past year. His voice had turned hoarse from a gastric ailment, causing his recording work to come to a standstill. Because of his health problems, he also rejected movie roles and it led to a confidence crisis."

We were just fine, says Cheung's lover (The Standard): " 'I have lost my best friend,' [Teresa Mo] wept. 'I knew him when we were both very, very young and he always cared for me. Whenever I was unhappy, he would come over and stay with me to make me feel better.' Mo said she felt something was troubling Cheung when she last saw him but when she offered to stay with him, he said it was not necessary."

Depressed for 20 long years (Straits Times):

[R]eports reveal that he might have been suffering from depression for 20 years. His boyfriend, Tong Hock Tak, also believed he was depressed. The former banker, whose eyes were swollen from crying, stood at the door of his apartment on Wednesday morning and gave an impromptu news conference to the Hongkong media.

He said: 'Our relationship of more than 10 years has been good all along. There's never been a third party. I've never changed towards him. I knew he was depressed. I spent a lot of time with him, counselling him.'

Cheung might have killed himself because of 'career hindrances', he said. 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.'

Apple Daily said Cheung, who was worth at least HK$300 million (S$67.5 million), wrote a will late last year, after an unsuccessful bid to take his life by swallowing sleeping pills.

He was said to have willed most of his property to Tong, who made him richer through the years by making wise investments in real estate and funds....He kept his relationship with Tong secret for years, United Daily News said, to protect the latter's banking career.

Cheung was said to have gone public with his romance only after Tong gave up his job for love.

During the conference on Wednesday, Tong also blasted newspapers for making up reports that other men had come between Cheung and himself.

(Includes timetable of what happened in Leslie's FINAL HOURS...)

Cheung cites depression in last note (The Star, Malaysia): The [suicide] note in Chinese, found in his coat pocket by a policeman, stated:

Depression! Thank you to the fans. Thank you to Prof Mike [his psychiatrist]. It has been a year of suffering. Thank you Mr Tong [his companion], Thank you Fei Che [Lydia Shum Tin Ha (plump comedic actress on left)]. In my life I have done nothing wrong. Why it has to be like this?

Farewell my friends (Straits Times, Singapore): "HIS last words were posed simply in a brief suicide note...So, why did Leslie Cheung take his life?...Reports, not unexpectedly, have been conflicting. [Tong] also confirmed that Cheung had been suffering from depression and that he had accompanied him to see a psychiatrist. He revealed that in November last year, Cheung had tried to kill himself. He did not reveal more details of the suicide attempt."

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*** Great articles about Leslie's relationship with his companion Tong Hock Tak, including a photo of Tong and Leslie holding hands. Translation of Chinese article about Tong and Cheung. Photo of Leslie and Tong on March 20 leaving the movies together.

Cheung's Suicide Note Released to Public (Zap2it.com).

Was failed affair the final straw? (Straits Times). [Tong said NO.]

That Old Feeling: Days of Being Leslie (Time): "A glittering raiment of ego had cloaked and cushioned Leslie for nearly 30 years in the limelight. Still beautiful, still looking a decade younger than his years, at the end he had all the perfections but one: a belief he was not as perfect a Leslie as he had been. Or that he was not seen to be as beautiful, as necessary, which for a magician is the same sad thing. What to do? Leslie's choices of films, songs, plumage, concert strategies had been brazen and true. Could his choice of a solution to his despair be just as daring?"

From Channel News Asia: "Cable Television reported that Cheung had left a note saying he was suffering from emotional problems before his death at the Mandarin Hotel in Hong Kong's Central district." From The Standard (Hong Kong): "Cheung had fallen from a high floor, crashed through fences on the podium and onto Connaught Road. He was taken to the Queen Mary Hospital where he was certified dead at 7.06 pm. Hotel staff had seen Cheung using a gym on the 24th floor at about 4pm. He was said to be alone at the time. A note Cheung had left with the concierge said he was experiencing 'emotional problems.' "

Horrible and shocking tragedy. He seemed to have everything going for him: a hot pop singing and acting career, increasing recognition in the West, and more tolerance of his sexual preferences. From Time Asia: "[H]e has not publicly declared his sexual orientation. 'It's more appropriate to say I'm bisexual,' Cheung notes. 'I've had girlfriends. When I was 22 or so, I asked my girlfriend Teresa Mo (his frequent co-star in TVB serials of the time) to marry me.' As a guest on Mo's cable TV show last month, Cheung bantered, 'If you'd agreed to marry me then, my life might have changed totally.' "

My friend Vivian LOVES him. She's from Hong Kong and showed me this huge wall poster she still keeps of him. With his soft, sensitive pretty boy face, his expressiveness and talent, his sensuality, and his combo of male/female qualities, Leslie had androgynous appeal. He was a sex symbol for women and gay men alike.

I've only seen him act in two movies. He was manly and aggressive in He's a Woman, She's a Man, while in Farewell My Concubine you felt for him as a Chinese opera singer who played women's parts.

The world has lost a star. He was only 46. I hope you have conquered your demons at last, Leslie.

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[Note: I want to explain something to readers who wonder why I keep quoting in detail certain news articles. This site, Tiger Cafe, is highly ranked on Google, Yahoo, AOL, MSN, and other search engines. Whatever I write here today gets indexed in all those search engines within a few days---for Google, it's by tomorrow. Sometimes my ranking is higher than that of certain major newspapers. Thus for a popular news story, like:

Leslie Cheung,
Adrien Brody kissing Halle Berry,
why Amanda Marsh broke up with Alex Michel and Alex entered soft porn,
or the Bush and Blair duet of "Endless Love,"

I get a LOT of hits. I feel a certain responsibility to point those readers in the right direction. Sometimes articles from news sites get taken off the page and archived, so Tiger Cafe becomes the ONLY free source left on the Internet for the full article.

If you are here looking for an old post on my site, please use my Site Search in the left column ("SEARCH: Chinese/English").

You should also see my favorite sources for many articles, from many papers, on a hot news topic: Google News and Yahoo News Full Coverage.]