Leslie Cheung

Leslie Cheung Kwok-wing ({{zh-ts|t=張國榮|s=张国荣}}; Cantonese {{IPA2|ts??55 kw?k33 w??11}}, Jyutping: zoeng1 kwok3 wing4; Mandarin Pinyin: Zhāng Guóróng, Wades-Giles: Chang Kuo-jung)

Ascension to Fame

In 1982, Cheung joined Capital Artists upon the end of his contract with RTV, where he met Florence Chan, who was his music agent in most of his life since then. He also met Anita Mui, another Cantopop idol, and built up their long lasting friendship. In 1983, Cheung published his first hit song, The Wind Blows On. In 1984, he published the hit song Monica, which became the first so-called "fast" song won RTHK 7th edition Top Ten Chinese Gold Songs Award. Monica led the new trend of Hong Kong in the mid 1980s demanded fast and energetic Cantopop songs that would be both suitable for dancing and listening, or for the singing enthusiast, the karaoke hits that the Cantopop fans could sing along to. Blending some of his own compositions, as well as Japanese hits of the day, Cheung started creating an embodiment of his own personal style. During the time, he still acted in a number of TVB serials, such as Once Upon an Ordinary Girl (儂本多情) and The Fallen Family (武林世家).

Related Topics:
Capital Artists - Anita Mui - Cantopop - RTHK 7th edition Top Ten Chinese Gold Songs Award - TVB

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In 1986, he joined Cinepoly Records Hong Kong and later published the album Summer Romance in 1987, which won the Best Selling CD of the year and IFPI Best Selling Album(Hong Kong). The success of Summer Romance made him one of the two top Cantopop idols in Hong Kong (the other one was Alan Tam). With the popularity of two stars, the fans of each other started a long-standing conflict. In 1988, he composed one of his most popular songs Silence is Golden* (沉默是金) (Cantonese lyric by Samuel Hui). Other popular albums published by Cheung during the period include Hot Summer (1988) Virgin Snow (1988) Leslie '89 (1989) Final Encounter (1989), and Salute(1990).

Related Topics:
Cinepoly Records Hong Kong - Summer Romance - Best Selling CD of the year - IFPI Best Selling Album - Alan Tam - Samuel Hui - Hot Summer - 1988 - Virgin Snow - Leslie '89 - 1989 - Final Encounter - 1990

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Together with Chow Yun-Fat, he starred in John Woo's action movie A Better Tomorrow (1986) and made his mark as Kit Sung, a righteous young cop tortured by his brother's crime boss background. In Stanley Kwan's Rouge (1987), he played an opium-smoking playboy against Anita Mui's courtesan Fleur. The film supposedly cemented his life-long friendship with his fellow pop star. Leslie teamed up with Woo and Chow Yun-Fat again in Once a Thief (1991) as Jim, a "brother" of Chow's Joe. In the 1991 Hong Kong Film Awards, he won a Best Actor Award for his performance as Yuddy in the Wong Kar-wai-directed Days of Being Wild (1990).

Related Topics:
Chow Yun-Fat - John Woo - Action movie - A Better Tomorrow - 1986 - Rouge - 1987 - Opium - Anita Mui - Once a Thief - 1991 - Hong Kong Film Awards - Wong Kar-wai - Days of Being Wild - 1990

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(*)Silence is Golden was first performed as a duet by Cheung and Hui. It also has a Madrin and Taiwanese version and performed by many other singers.

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