Childhood Days
What I remember most as a young child was that I had never lived with my parents. People might express curiosity towards this statement and would ask, “How could this be possible?” But it was possible and it did happen to me. Now as I am talking about it, and I could only put it in past tense, the bitter and unhappy feeling have all gone, but revisiting it still makes me feel an intermittent uneasiness in my heart even though youngsters nowadays should not be bothered by the past, but now when I talk about my childhood, really, Cheung Kwok Wing was not raised like a spoiled brat as many people thought I was. I was not a child who was spoiled and could throw toys around as I did not have too many. The most precious one that I can recall was a tricycle which had a ding-ding bell.
My childhood house was situated in Wan Chai. It was an apartment where I lived with many elder brothers and sisters, my grandmother and two maids. I am the tenth son and the youngest child in the family. I remember that during those days in the 50s, many of my classmates were also born in big families with more than ten siblings. My family can only be regarded as middle-class [Translator’s note: Since the word ‘middle’ in Cantonese can mean a considerable amount of anything, Leslie has jokingly used the word ‘middle-class’ to describe the vast number of siblings in his family] in quantity, but I am not sure of the quality (laughed).
My father was a well-known tailor making Western suits. My mother married him at a very young age and gave birth to many children. My mother assisted my father in his business and performed her duties similar to those of a secretary. My father was not born a rich man. His success was mainly due to his hard work. He was well respected within the textile industry. His clients included many famous Hollywood stars, such as Marlon Brando, Gary Grant and Alfred Hitchcock. My father gained his nickname as Tailor King. What an old-fashioned nickname -- Tailor King, naming oneself as king just like the foreigners do!
Nevertheless, these [Translator’s note: I think Leslie meant his father’s fame in the industry] did not have too much influence on my childhood. What affected me most as a child was that my parents had never lived with me. As a young kid without parents, I was quite depressed at times. I could only attribute this to one thing -- the selfishness of the adults.
I know that my father liked women (laughed involuntarily) and that my mother and my father had a two-storey apartment in Central District. They used one storey as dwelling and the other as a work place. They explained that in order to keep a watch on the employees, they therefore could not live with us [Translator’s note: the kids]. I think that adults in those days just did not consider the feeling of the children at all. Perhaps I was the unlucky one whose parents failed to understand their children’s feelings. Maybe that was an era when adults were the ones making all the decisions.
Cases of reported child abuse were totally unheard of. I am not implying that my parents have abused us. Sometimes being physically punished by one’s parents is not necessarily too bad. The fact is that I didn’t even have that experience, not to mention hoping that my father would take me out to the park to take some pictures on Sundays.
On one occasion, my relationship with my father was startlingly obvious. I was visiting my father at his office and some of his employees complimented me on my good-look as a kid. I dare say I was really a lovely kid at that time: I had huge eyes, a tiny nose, red cherry lips and looked like a doll. Just as adults would address children, they said, “Hey, Chai Chai (little boy), how are you? You’re so cute. Did your daddy take you out to have Dim Sum?” At that time, I was only six years old and was in Primary One, however, I said something really strange. I didn’t really know how my father took it upon hearing what I said. I didn’t think he felt anything at all since he didn’t react to anything even after that. I replied, “I am not familiar with him!” (laughed involuntarily). My father had not reflected on this and everything went on as usual even after this incident [Translator’s note: Even though Leslie was joking about this, there was disappointment in his voice. All he had ever wanted was for his parents to pay attention to him; even if it was in anger.]
Do you know where Peninsula Hotel is? It is located in Tsimshatsui and is a five-star hotel. My father always reserved a room there and invited many pretty ladies to go there to chat (laughed)! We did some strange things such as hiring private detectives to investigate him, just like the plots found in the old Chinese movies (laughed)!
I have two mothers - my birth mother and a so-called stepmother. Both of them had once lived together before. You know there will always be a lot of unhappy incidents when two women are serving one man. Due to jealousy, my stepmother had even once poured urine on me (laughed). My childhood was spent with the occurrence of all these unhappy incidents.
My Nanny, Luk Cher
A lot of people do not understand why I insist on living with Luk Cher even until these days. The reason is very simple. As I have mentioned before, my childhood was a lonely one. I am the tenth child in the family. My eldest and my second sister can be considered as a pair. They could always talk to each other and compare each other’s beauty. My third and fourth siblings [Translator’s note: Leslie didn’t mention the gender of the siblings] had passed away. My fifth and sixth sisters are a pair since they are roughly of the same age. Seventh brother was always with eighth brother, and my ninth brother who couldn’t obtain a visa or passport [Translator’s note: to be alive] had died as well (laughed helplessly). Then it was me, the tenth son in the family. Although the age gap between my eighth brother and me is eight years, he had tried his best to love me. In spite of this, we had different interests in games. When I was born, he was eight years old; and when he was eighteen, I was only ten. So there was a great difference between us -- in terms of the games we played and other aspects in life. As a kid, I think I was unusually quiet. One may question why I know that much. Well, that’s because Luk Cher told me a lot about myself.
In those days, we lived in an old traditional Chinese building. As you know, old buildings are usually large and can be really quiet at times. When there were guests, they would normally stay in the living room. When I was alone in my room and the adults were in the living room, I was often left unnoticed. I wouldn’t cry, call for attention or complain that no adult accompanied me. Maybe you can describe this as a silent protest. Anyway, time passed (paused at here) and there wasn’t much left for me to reminisce about. Nothing worth remembering and my childhood silently slipped away. Anyway, the one thing that I do remember about my childhood was the death of my grandmother. That was the first time I encountered the death of someone and it left a lasting impression on me.
My Grandma Passed Away
When I was in Primary One, a lot of things happened to me. One day, Luk Cher picked me up at school as usual. She told me, ”Don’t be afraid of what’s going to happen. Grandma has gone to sleep!” I said, “What do you mean by she’s gone to sleep?”
Well, I felt that I seemed to know a lot more than any other kids of my own age. Maybe I was a really nosy child and since there was nothing much to do, I watched a lot of the old Cantonese movies (Yuet Yue Cheong Pin). I felt that something was wrong that day. When I arrived home, I found that many of my relatives had already gathered in my house. My cousins were all crying, so were my aunts. One of my cousins said, “Number Ten (Leslie’s relatives called him No. Ten when he was young), come and take a look at your grandma. Grandma has passed away.”
I saw my grandma lying dead in my room. She was a cripple. When I was young, I used to sleep in the same room with her as the apartment we lived in was very large and the rooms were huge. She was in her seventies when she died. She was crippled in her sixties. She spent most her days in her rattan chair, except when she was being cleansed and fed. She was a rather lonely old woman. She spent more than ten years in that chair. Of course, someone would help her to her bed at night (took a deep breath after finishing this sentence). I saw my grandma sitting on the rattan chair with her mouth wide open and her skin turned purplish black. Then I saw some people whom I didn’t know came and took my grandma’s corpse away. The grown-ups in the family got very busy. Later we went to the funeral home. That was the first time I visited a funeral home. I saw my grandma’s picture adorning the altar. I was afraid and dared not go in to look at her. However, on the day of the funeral, I eventually saw my grandma’s face. She hadn’t changed except that she was dressed up differently and covered by a piece of cloth up to the neck. She laid there and people walked around the coffin taking one last look at her. I remember being told by the funeral-home caretaker that we had to avoid dropping a slightest drop of tear on the coffin or else her spirit would not be reincarnated. After talking about the death, let me tell you about marriages.
My Father
I don’t know whether my distrust in marriage was rooted from my childhood, or perhaps from the example of the relationship set by my parents, that’s why when my favourite uncle married my auntie – as a matter of fact, this aunt later became my most favourite one - I had a very strong resistance towards her. I would cry loudly whenever I saw her (laughed involuntarily). The situation was so bad that Luk Cher had to carry me away and left the wedding banquet without finishing the dinner. I recall that at that time when I saw her, I would cry and then grab her (laughed again and then paused for a while). That’s it. That’s the sort of childhood I had.
Oh yes, I remember something rather hilarious about my childhood, which I would love to share with you. When I was young, my father used to swim in winter. Actually, it isn’t merely when I was young, as it was his hobby, he continued to do so when I was at secondary school and even when I began my career. At that time, public swimming pool was not as popular. The only public pool available at that time was Victoria Park swimming pool. Most people swam in “Wing Pang”[Translator’s note: “Wing Pang” was a swimming area on the seashore with wooden platforms to protect the swimmers, but now it does not exist in Hong Kong anymore]. There was a Wing Pang at Sai Wan [Western District] and many people went there to swim.
When I was young, there wasn’t much to do, especially during the summer holidays. Of course, I could not count on my father to take me out for a ride in his car (laugh). Hence Luk Cher would take me on a tram-ride to Sai Wan. I remember the “ting ting” sound of the tram and that’s how we travelled to Sai Wan for a swim. The fare of the tram was only 20 cents at the time.
My father was the president of the Wing Pang. I remember the most hilarious occasion was once when I descended the steps of the Wing Pang, I saw my father chatting with his friends. It was like he saw the son of a good friend rather than his own; he patted my head and reached into his pockets pulling out a handful of coins and then put them on my hand. At that time, coins were really something. You could buy a bottle of Vitasoy for 20 cents. I handed the coins to Luk Cher because I didn’t really know how to handle them.
Interesting Story about Swimming
Let’s talk about my swimming: I remember how I really loved a particular pair of swimming trunks when I was a kid. This pair of swimming trunks was not as sexy as the Speedo swimming trunks that you wear nowadays. Speedo was not popular at the time. That pair of swimming trucks was bought from a shop called Mei Mei Kids’ Wear Company. It was indeed a very lovely pair of trunks. It had a white background, patterned with colourful little fishes -- red, blue, green, lots of colours. However, I think it had a bad “fung shui” (laughed) because it was perhaps too symbolic with so many lively fishes swimming on it, I was almost drowned on two to three occasions.
The first time it happened was at the Wing Pang when I was really small. I remember the beach was divided into different sections within the Wing Pang. There was a beach area where people could learn to swim. Fortune-tellers foretold that I was prone to water accidents, but it did not make sense to me as a kid. I don’t know whether you remember it or not. At that time, foam rubber lifebuoys were rather popular. Before the foam rubber lifebuoys were on the market, rubber tyres were the common lifebuoys that people used to learn to swim. Perhaps at that time, my butt was too small (laughed). I remember at some stage, I really hated swimming. My family told me that I started learning to swim at the age of four, but I could not remember that. By the time I reached six to seven years of age, I was rather prone to accidents. An accident happened when I was sitting on the lifebuoy paddling, a big wave came and the lifebuoy capsized. My small butt slipped inside the inner ring of the lifebuoy and I could not get out. At that moment, my butt was facing the sun. That was what the Chinese called “Death in water of three feet’s depth”. I remember that the water was really only three to four feet deep. When I was struggling, I saw Luk Cher on the shore totally immersed herself in looking far into the distant sea and did not know that I was in danger. I had surely drunk lots of water, but I kept on struggling until I finally managed to get to the surface of the water and stay afloat. That was my first swimming accident.
The second time it happened was once when there was a typhoon, my brother and I went swimming. As I told you, there was a ten years’ age gap between us. When I was six, he was sixteen. At that time, my brother was really fit. He was a sea boy-scout. His body was well-built and he had lots of girlfriends. However, he looks like a grizzly bear now and is rather fat with 36 inches’ waistline. As usual, I grabbed my lifebuoy and headed towards the Wing Pang. As there was a storm that day, we were not allowed to swim in the sea so I was told to swim in the training area. But that so-called training area was only guarded by a few wooden piles, and beyond them was the sea. There were lifeguards on duty in that area. Maybe because of the storm, the bottom of the sea was quite hot and therefore there were lots of jellyfishes floating on the surface of the sea. When I was swimming, I saw a big jellyfish. I therefore tried to climb up the wooden piles, however, they were too high for me - I was only 3’10-1/2” tall then - so I fell back into the sea. Fortunately at that very instant, someone nearby grabbed the jellyfish immediately and threw it elsewhere. That was my second swimming accident.
The third time was when my eldest sister, Ophelia Cheung Luk Ping took all her siblings, including me, to Ting Kau for a camping trip. My sister’s boyfriend was also with us. At that time, two of my brothers were swimming with me: one of them was the brother who now looks like a grizzly bear; he was a very good swimmer. The other one, that is my seventh brother who was a bit older than me, didn’t know how to swim. Even now, I think he still has not learnt how to swim. He still needed a lifebuoy at the age of eighteen at that time. With my elder sister, I was on a floating bed holding on to my lifebuoy while my two brothers were on the platform. Then my brother (the one who doesn’t know how to swim) jumped from the platform with a hope to land on my floating bed and sit on it. How impossible this person was! How could he expect himself to jump from a platform and then land on the floating bed without capsizing it? I was thrown into the water but still clutching my lifebuoy, however, he dared to snatch it from me and swam away, leaving me struggling in the water. Basically, I was not really in a dangerous position as my future brother-in-law and his cousin were nearby, however, at that time, what crossed my mind was that this brother of mine was rather selfish.
Seventh Brother and Eighth Brother
My intuition was constantly proved to be correct because there followed many more occasions that I could prove how selfish my seventh brother was. For example, there was a time when we were playing. In the old building where we lived, in order to save space, my two brothers and I shared a three-storey bunk bed. Originally, I slept on the lowest storey, but when we were playing, we would climb up every single storey. This brother said he wanted to play ‘Big Storm’ with me. He told me to climb up to the highest storey while he climbed to the middle one. He then kicked hard at the wood-block and shouted “Ai ya, there’s a big storm! There’s a big storm!” and I was thrown off the bed from the third storey to the floor. I was surprised that I didn’t get killed as a result.
At that time, I began to fear this brother of mine. I felt that he was abusing me a little, although I didn’t really know the word ‘abuse’ or what it meant. The word abuse was not as commonly used then as it is now. My other brother ended up fighting with this brother of mine in order to protect me.
Talking about my brother who looks like a grizzly bear, I think he has been really good to me. When I was young, I did something really foolish. There was a table-tennis [ping-pong ball] table in our house. When my brothers were playing table tennis, I analyzed the ping-pong ball wondering how they could be made so round. I don’t know whether you have ever had the habit of putting things into your mouth when you were small, I stuffed the ball into my mouth (laughed) and found that I could not breathe. I went to this brother and pointed at my mouth with my finger. I tried to tell him what had happened but could only heard myself exclaiming, “Oooh Oooh Oooh!” He immediately extracted the ball from my mouth with his hand. I then realized that this brother has always been showing great affection for me.
CHAPTER 2: MY SCHOOL DAYS (PRIMARY SCHOOL)
My Best Schoolmates
I wonder if you have any schoolmate who will hold your hand and talk to you. When I was a kid, I had a few schoolmates like this, but we did not hold our hands. There were Lau, Kwan and me -- Cheung (laughed). Funny, isn’t it? Our names coincide with the three best friends in one of the four great classical Chinese novels the ‘Three Kingdoms’! The three of us, together with our schoolmate Hui, were very close. Although I haven’t communicated with Lau and Kwan anymore, however I still keep in touch with Hui till this day. Hui is of Chiu Chow origin (a district region in China). He was one of my best schoolmates. I have known him since Primary One till secondary school. At secondary school, we separated because I went to England and he went to Canada to continue our study. Up until now, we still talk to each other over the phone. I still remember that this Chiu Chow boy was very cute in appearance because he was chubby like a pig. I remember that I was rather jealous of him because his parents loved him very much. His father was a taxi driver. His mother was a Singaporean Chinese. She was one of those privileged women who didn’t need to work. She lived with her parents. Hui’s grandfather was a legal advisor. He was a rather rich and intellectual man and used to own a shipping company. However, due to the rise of Communism in China, he was forced to close down his shipping company and flee to Hong Kong. I was never able to understand the reality of having to escape from one’s own country. Anyway, it appeared that it was a happy family. Even their daughters after getting married would stay at home[Translator’s note: according to Chinese custom, a woman has to live with her husband’s family after marriage. Occasionally, if the girl comes from a noble or a rich family, the husband will live with the girl’s family after getting married]. Even the husband to Hui’s aunt lived with them. Hui has a female cousin who also lived with him and went to the same school with us. Coincidentally, Hui’s family had really produced a lot of fat people, even Hui’s cousin was fat and chubby.
St. Luke’s Primary School
I attended St. Luke’s Primary School when I was small. The reason was simple. My eldest sister and her then husband were both teachers at St. Luke’s. She taught students from Form Five to Form Six. After I had finished the lower level of kindergarten, I was sent to St. Luke’s to attend Primary One prematurely, skipping the upper level of kindergarten. As a result, I couldn’t catch up with the studies, and had to repeat Primary One. It was not surprising at all since I had to catch up one extra year’s school work after I promoted to Primary One from the lower level of the kindergarten. Naturally I did not know the school work too well; therefore, I had to repeat Primary One merely as a substitute for that year of missed-out upper level of kindergarten.
Later, after finishing the two years of Primary One, I progressed academically until I completed Primary Six. There really wasn’t much worth remembering during that period of time, but what I do remember were the numerous private tuitions that my fifth sister gave me. It was at that time when I first encountered Chinese calligraphy which I really hated. Not to mention that I was loaded with schoolwork, I was even made to practise Chinese calligraphy at night! I was also criticized for my poor English penmanship, thus I had to practise it too. During those days, calligraphy involved the use of a fountain pen and ink. We needed to perform a troublesome process of dipping the pen into the bottle of ink, unlike now when ballpoint pens are commonly used. If you visit a stationery store, you will be able to see what those fountain pens look like. It is roughly 9 inch long, and you need to attach a nib to it. The thickness of the nib depends on the preference of the writer. You need to dip the nib into a bottle of ink and then apply it on a piece of paper. You also need to make sure that you refill the ink before it is dried up on paper. Its purpose is to nurture one’s patience and the accuracy of the stroke in writing alphabets. But then the training didn’t help much because both my English and Chinese handwritings right now are still very unsightly (laughed)! Apart from those incidents, I can still remember that my eldest sister was very strict to me.
My sister Ophelia Cheung Is Very Demanding
I remember there was once a fight between my fat brother and my eldest sister. I did work hard in my studies and was usually one of the top ten students in examinations, however, my sister Ophelia Cheung was never satisfied. Maybe she was influenced by our family into thinking that one should be independent and never fail in one’s achievements. My sister always pushed me to study hard which, I know, was a way of showing her affection for me; however, I began to feel pressure mounting inside me. Then one day my teacher punished me and I was detained at school for a very minor offence. My sister scolded me and her anger gradually escalated. She grabbed a hanger (one that was made of wood and was manufactured by my father with my father’s company logo imprinted on it) and started hitting me with it until it was broken. My fat brother could not stand this anymore so he confronted my sister. ”Do you know this hurts?” my brother protested. My sister replied, “It’s none of your business. I am only teaching my little brother!” ”Why don’t you try it on yourself?” my brother asked angrily.Oh yes, this happened after my sister had hit me with the hanger. She was still not satisfied and started to whip me with my brother’s belt which he worn with his school uniform. My brother got very angry (laughed) and said, “You really don’t know how much it hurts. I’ll let you try this yourself!” And so my brother whipped my sister and they both ended up fighting. My sister was a real fierce fighter and was as aggressive as boys (laughed). She then broke my brother’s head with a coca-cola bottle (laughed involuntarily upon saying this)! Well, so this is one of my family’s little affairs!
Interesting Memories of Primary School Days
There are usually several groups at school: one group excels academically, another does well in sports, while the other one is good at courting girls. I belonged to the academic group. Talking about sports, well, I was very short when I was small. As you all know, I am not that tall even now, but at least one would say that my height is average, but back then I was really short. I don’t know whether you are familiar with Wood Sui (meaning ‘Living water’). Wood Sui was a sports ground located in a park two streets away from Kennedy Road. Back then, with the exception of a few bigger schools, like KGV or St. Stephen, most schools did not have their own sports facilities. There was no sports playground at St. Luke’s. Our Physical Education lesson was 45 minutes in duration. It was a rather silly thing to do because whenever we had our P.E. class, we would walk for 15 minutes to the park. By the time we reached the place, 15 minutes were already gone; and then another 15 minutes were gone by the time we returned to class. This means that there were only 15 minutes left for our P.E. lesson!I was never really interested in sports, but I loved to wear the sports uniform, because it was really comfortable wearing short pants. Lots of people don’t understand that I wore short pants to school at those days. My family called me Dirty Gang. Do you know why? I wore a long pair of white socks, a pair of white short pants and white shirt with a school logo to school but every time when I got home, perhaps the school’s wooden benches were really dirty, the back of my pants would always be covered with stains. I hated most was wearing the pair of long socks because it might not be of good quality. When they were new, they were tight, but after being worn for several times, they became loose. I always had to use the broad rubber bands, the ones used for pants, to tie around the socks. Luk Cher would buy the rubber bands and sew them on for me. It was so tight that it always left an itchy feeling on my skin. Nevertheless I was not the complaining type of kids. I did rather well academically. I remember that for two years in a row, I achieved 2nd and 3rd places in Chinese in the entire primary school; however, my sister gave me a feeling of very demanding and overly anxious. As a result, I began to resent studying.
I remember that I studied old Maths when I was at primary school, but then I could rarely differentiate the old Maths from the new Maths. By the time I had to learn new Maths, I had already moved to another school which was a school that you all know, the Rosaryhill School. By then Luk Che no longer saw me off to school nor picked me up from school.
CHAPTER 3: MY SCHOOL DAYS (SECONDARY SCHOOL)
Rosaryhill School
I considered life at Rosaryhill to be that of a grown up’s. I had learnt to be independent by boarding the school bus myself. I found that I was not familiar with a lot of things at the secondary school, for instance, we had to pray at school. To be quite honest, I was never pious in religion even up to this day. My knowledge of Catholic belief, Christianity and Buddhism was rather basic. In those days, my voice was my only gift. I would consider that as my first step into the world of music. Although my knowledge of religious matter was rather shallow, and my maths was poor, several teachers took interest in me because I excelled in English. They chose me to lead the school prayer before finishing school for the day. I wonder whether for those of you who study in Christian-based schools now still pray during assembly before you are allowed to go home. I remember that I led the class most of the time saying the prayer, ‘Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name…’. This sparked envy amongst some of my classmates who thought that they did not need me to lead the prayer as they could do it themselves. My character began to change in secondary school. I began to lose interest in my studies. Maybe as I have said, my sister had pushed me too hard when I was in primary school. When I was in Form One, she was not too familiar with new Maths either. She therefore hired a private tutor to teach me. However, those private tutors were not too dedicated to my education and I slowly lost interest. By then my academic performance began to slip with the exception of English language. I just aimed for a pass and nothing more. That was when my interest in sports began to grow stronger.
Adapting To Life in Secondary School
I started to have the privilege of owning more luxurious things, like Puma sneakers or Adidas trainers for playing basketball. I then discovered that Rosaryhill was quite different from St. Luke’s because most students conversed in English rather than Cantonese. In order not to be deemed a failure, I trained myself to be fluent in English. The headmaster also spoke in English during his admonitory speech to us. In the beginning, I really did not have any clue of what he was talking about, but gradually, I began to be able to communicate with him.
I learned later that the school held a lot of talent quests. At that time, Yiu So Yung (a female Taiwanese singer in the 60s who sang chiefly Mandarin songs) was very popular. A few students always imitated her in singing and it was indeed a funny thing to watch. I still remember this classmate well as he was quite sissy. I wonder where he is now.
We also frequently played badminton. There were always inter-class and inter-school competitions. I was actually quite good at badminton. On several occasions, I was told to play badminton with our principal. I was very scared, but on the other hand, I felt honoured to be able to play badminton with him!
At that time, I didn’t enter for any talent quests. I merely attended them as an audience. I didn’t know that I could sing. Do you know when did I learn to sing and who had inspired me to sing? It was really Yiu So Yung (laughed heartily)! In those days, the music industry was not as developed as it is today. There were only two categories: the Mandarin songs which dominated the majority market, and a small selection of English songs. Canto-pop was not popular at all in my school days. I was not really enthusiastic about English songs during those days because they were mainly heavy rock, such as CCR’s and Deep Purple’s. However, I did know those English songs especially when going to parties. You wouldn’t believe it, Yiu So Yung was a really famous singer and she was the VIP of TVB’s ‘Enjoy Yourself Tonight’ shows. Her concerts in Hong Kong were always sold out. I too had gone to one of her concerts being held in an opera house. Many people imitated her in singing. My elder brother had bought some of her albums and I started to listen to them. I therefore learned to sing her songs and up till now, I still know how to sing some of her popular hits.
Two Most Impressive Western Movies
As I grew older, I began to listen to English songs and watched Western movies. To me, the two most impressive Western movies at that time were ‘Romeo and Juliet’ and ‘Jeremy’. Wow! The two main casts in ‘Romeo and Juliet’ were stunningly good-looking! The theme song of ‘Jeremy’ was really great. Do you still remember it? It is called ‘Blue Balloon’. It was at that time that I began to like listening to English songs. I even recited the dialogue in the original soundtrack of ‘Romeo and Juliet’. I don’t know why I did that. Think about it, Shakespeare’s work! As a matter of fact, I didn’t know Shakespeare’s work too well, but I felt bad if I didn’t know how to recite it, just like now if you tell others that you do not listen to Alan Tam’s songs, people will say that you are out-dated.
CHAPTER 4: PUPPY LOVE
Puppy Love in Primary School
It’s time for Cheung Kwok Wing’s tale of love! Now, we’ve come to the main topic. I’m going to reveal my secret! Let’s start with my experience of Puppy Love. The first one happened in Primary School. Wouldn’t you say that I matured early in life? I was roughly seven at the time. Her name is Kwong and her last name is Mun Yin. As I said, “If I have to reveal the truth, it has to be everything!” At that time, she was a real beauty to me. In retrospection, I wasn’t wrong. She was a beauty. She had long straight hair with a one-length cut. At that time, Lau, Kwan, as well as Hui and I were good friends. Mrs. Kwong knew my mother through some gatherings. I began to approach this auntie diplomatically. At that time, it was my desire to have a girlfriend. And somehow, I managed to find myself one. She was smaller than me and used to sit two rows in front of me. I would write and throw notes to her. That’s how I experienced my first Puppy Love; however, there wasn’t a good ending to it. By Primary Four, she and her family immigrated to Canada. At Primary Five and Six, I was rather studious hoping to be promoted to secondary level. Hence, I wasn’t too involved in love relationships. In fact, I doubt if I really knew anything about feelings of love at that time. It was when I was in Form One that I truly started to miss her. One day she returned to Hong Kong and disaster struck. How did that happen? Well, in Form one, I had an awful haircut. It was what we called, “Luk Kwan Chong” [Translator’s note: GI cut or cool cut - the hair style of a skinhead who works in the army]. Since I loved swimming, so I had a very dark complexion at that time. I looked like a piece of charcoal. When she returned, I invited her out and she accepted my invitation. When I saw her, she looked completely different. Maybe girls matured faster than boys between the age of thirteen to fourteen, she looked like a big sister to me and I guessed she must have felt sick at the sight of me. She was much taller than me as my height could only reach half of her head.
That was the first time I felt truly humiliated by the opposite sex. During the course of the date, she was quite reserved, insisting that she wouldn’t go anywhere. It really spoiled the date. I recall I used to be insomniac before going on a picnic so you can imagine how I spent the night before without sleep in anticipation of meeting her. I remember going to the barber shop, not the salon we have nowadays, to have my hair cropped. I actually did not have much hair left to be styled but I thought I would look cool with an even shorter style (laughed). With the response she had given me, I felt I was truly humiliated.
Puppy Love in Secondary School (1)
Okay, after finished talking about my puppy love in primary school, I wish to talk about my love affair in secondary school. The girl’s name is Nancy (she has the same name as my sister-in-law’s). I knew her in Form One. During those days, it was considered embarrassing if one didn’t go out with girls. Our school could be considered as a school of teddy boys. Well, the students were not really bad. Maybe it’s just me who was a teddy boy. How did we make friends with girls? Basically the girls and boys were separated in the school. There was not really any time for the boys to meet with the girls because the recess for the boys was 15 minutes earlier than the girls. After we finished our recess, the girls would then have theirs. The best way to get acquainted with girls was through participation in sports events. Through participation in these activities, we could meet girls on the field, otherwise we would be left sitting in the classroom. I always participated in those events so that I could go to the sports field. Girls who participated in sports were normally outgoing and more approachable, and those who didn’t do so were normally quite fond of studying. Well, we, the so-called ‘playboys’, would naturally like chatting with ‘playgirls’! And there I was, I met a playgirl named Nancy. It was only after I had known her that I knew she was a real playgirl --- she had loads and loads of boyfriends. It seemed that all the girls I got to know had mocked at me. It was such an embarrassing moment when she asked me, “Have you heard of the song sung by Donny Osmond?” I can’t recall the name of the song…… oh yes! It was called ‘Sweet and Innocent’. She continued, “Do chase after me after you have listened to this song!” She merely wanted to state that I was too pure and innocent for her.
So that was it. After feeling bad for a while, I moved on to Form Two and again met another girl.
Puppy Love in Secondary School (2)
This girl’s last name is Wong. This girl, I would say, was quite important to me in my life. I believe she really was my first love. She had long hair and I knew her through playing badminton. Well, it seemed that I knew all my girlfriends through sports. Talking about her, I recall another girl by the name of Tse Wah Sau who is now a famous runner. I think she is now training athletes in short-run at the South China Athletic Association. At that time, both of the girls had long hair and were extremely well-known amongst schoolmates. Wong competed with Tse, and of course she lost to Tse. Honestly speaking, it is quite a record that Tse can now still finish running within 11 seconds. In sports competitions, badminton is a very important type of game. I therefore often played badminton with her after knowing her. In Form two, I was reluctant to have short hair anymore because long hair was very popular at that time. I then started to play truant at times. Well, those were not real cases of truancy. Just that I would only go back to the class at the very last minute after the bell had rung, hoping that the student counselor would not notice me. Later, the school regulation became rather strict and I ended up climbing through the back entrance. Still I was reluctant to cut my hair as I thought that long hair was stylish.With the exception of English Language, my marks at school were disastrous.
Despite having numerous private tuitions, I still failed to improve in new Maths. As a result, my parents were called in to meet with the teacher. Talking about meeting the parents, it was also sports-related. I loved basketball at that time. The sports teacher was quite fond of me and his name was Koo Yue Wing. He was actually quite a playful person. For example, he would allow us to hit his stomach with the ball during lessons. At that age, we couldn’t care less who that person was; as long as he could play with us. Then one day, while we were waiting for our school bus, we yelled aloud his nickname ‘Koo Wak Wing’ [Translator’s note: The pronunciation of his actual name resembles his nickname which means ‘Cunning Wing’]. He remained silent and didn’t respond at that moment. After finishing the third lesson on the following day, we had our recess. During recess, the student counselor came into the classroom and said, “Cheung Kwok Wing, see me at the office. Take your bag with you!” I knew immediately that I was in trouble. The student counselor said, “I am sure you know what you have done -- being disrespectful to the teacher. We will meet with your parents and you will be suspended from school for two weeks!” I was really scared of being punished in this way. My father was later called in to meet with the teacher. It was quite a funny incident though because the two of them turned out to be like discussing business! It was a real incident. Don’t laugh because it did happen! My father said, “Please help and guide my son.” He handed his name card to the teacher while saying so. This was such a trite act of his. Think about this: I was being suspended from school and he acted as if he was talking about business! During the time when I was staying away from school, I felt really bad and I earnestly yearned to see my classmates again. From that time onwards, I swore I would never be punished in such a way anymore. Maybe I was superstitious. Every year around March and April, there was always something bad happening to me. I was suspended from school for two weeks that March. In the following year between March and April, something bad happened again. One day, I went to the cinema with my eldest sister and her husband. I don’t know if you remember there was a film called Yau Do Siu Gum Kong (The Little Judo Guardian)? Judo was quite popular at that time in Hong Kong. We went watching the sequel to that movie at a cinema in Causeway Bay. After the movie was over, we went to a store and bought a can of frozen mixed fruit. I then went with my sister and brother-in-law to fetch his car. Not realizing that the can was wet, thus causing the thin yellowish-brown paper bag torn open, the can fell through the torn bag while we were walking and landed right on my toe. I felt a sharp pain on my toe but managed to continue walking. When I reached my sister’s car, she gave out a loud cry because she saw blood gushing out from my wounded toe. This time, I wasn’t suspended from school but was forced to stay in bed for a week. I can still remember that I had to wear slippers to school subsequently. With my toe wrapped up in bandage, I had to limp back to school.
So that was my experience in secondary school in Hong Kong. As I have mentioned before, I did not do well in my studies except English. After Form One, I was retained for one year. I was again in a dangerous position in Form Two. This means that I was supposed to be retained again but I finally didn’t have to. It was due to the same old problem -- new Maths. My father was very angry because he felt that he had lost his face. When I went to see him in his office, his face was grim with anger. He said to me, “I doubt you can really make it here in Hong Kong. Have you thought of studying abroad?” I felt ashamed and replied immediately, “That’s great! It’s a good suggestion!” Everybody wants to escape from the reality in one way or another. I thought that even if I did not make it abroad, no one would ever know. At that time, I felt that my father did indeed love me. But now, I have a different view. Maybe he merely felt ashamed of his son having to retain twice in secondary school, thus there was a need to get rid of me. Luckily, there was a schoolmate of mine in Form Two who had also applied for studying in England. I therefore had all the information required. I had never thought of studying in America or in Canada. The application process was less complicated in England. At that time, the application process to go to study in England was operated based on the income of the family. What does it means? Well, as long as you were in a financially good position, you would be accepted. The way they defined the entrance examination was unbelievable. All I needed to do was send in the application form. They then sent us back a question paper in the form of an essay. After I answered the question and returned it, I got a pass in the exam. Well, of course, I had asked my sister to write the essay for me and no doubt I passed. The application process only took two months. Before I passed the exam., they had already sent us a letter of acceptance requiring me to pay the fee and complete the application procedure. All in all, this was a speedy process. After listening to a song, I will tell you about my experience of studying abroad.
CHAPTER 5: STUDYING IN ENGLAND
Leaving Hong Kong for England
When I left for England, a strange thing happened. Many of my family members came and saw me off. This included my parents, my brothers, my sisters, as well as Luk Cher. My feeling at that time was, “Let me get out of here as quickly as possible! I actually don’t want to stay in Hong Kong!” Perhaps this was the effect of my childhood -- I did not feel sad upon departing from my family. I remember I just waved goodbye once, then turned around and left, without even looking back. I didn’t feel sorry at all for leaving here. I boarded a chartered flight operated by Laker. I am not sure if Laker still exists in Hong Kong. The company ran chartered flights especially for students. The fare was remarkably low. It only cost a bit more than $1,000 at that time. For a single ticket to England, it was only a few hundred dollars. What’s more, it did not stop at too many places either. I remember the plane only stopped at Karachi in India before heading for England. At first, I felt lucky that I had boarded a jumbo aircraft for my first flying experience. I sat approximately in the middle of the airplane. If you have traveled on an aircraft before, you would surely know that there are movie projectors on top of the mid-section in each zone of the plane. I was assigned to sit directly beneath a movie projector. When the plane took off, the projector suddenly fell and left dangling in the air, with four screws still attaching to it. It was not until the plane had reached stably at a higher altitude that the air-hostesses came by and asked me to leave my seat so that they could fix it. That was my journey to England. Upon arriving in England, the first thing I noticed was the difference in weather between England and Hong Kong. It could be considered quite late for me to arrive in England, i.e. in late August. Normally, students would arrive in early August so that they could spend some time with their relatives in England. As I did not have any relative in England at that time, I arrived much later then. A friend of my father picked me up at the airport and I spent the night at his house. I was then sent to the boarding school the very next day.
My First Impression of the School
That was the first time in my life to have ever slept for 28 hours. I was very tired when I arrived. I didn’t suffer from any jet lag though. I slept and slept for more than one day until I felt someone nudged me. The person who had woken me up was Lee, who was the son of my father’s friend. He said, “Cheung Kwok Wing, you’ve got to go to school now!” He then took me to school. My first impression of the school was that it was rather big and was quite nice. At that time, I was not very demanding. After all, I didn’t come from a famous school in Hong Kong. The schools in England are all relatively big in any event. There was no one at the school when I arrived apart from a teacher and his wife. They even offered me some sandwiches. It was not until the next day that I met my classmates. I was then sent to a dormitory that could accommodate 16 people.When I first arrived, I was attending the junior class, i.e. elementary class. Since in Hong Kong, I studied only up to Form Two, so when I arrived, I had already skipped a few grades studying at Upper Fourth, which was equivalent to Form Four in Hong Kong.
Perhaps I am a very adaptable person ever since my childhood, therefore I immediately got used to the new environment uncomplainingly. The classmate who came with me was a little bit more demanding. Maybe it was due to his family background since his father was the CEO of a shipping company, so he felt uneasy towards everything. I gradually gained weight because I had eaten the portion of food that my friend refused to eat. It seemed that he was going on a hunger strike in protest against the unsatisfactory environment. In fact, there really wasn’t much choice in terms of food over there in England. Well, let me now recount what was available on the menu whilst I was studying in England.
Eating Breakfast
Morning call came at seven o’clock in the morning. When I used the term ‘morning call’, it wasn’t what you would imagine as the morning call you get in a hotel or that you can request a particular time for it. It was more like a fire drill. In response to the morning call, we would wake up automatically. Then we had to tidy up our bed, get dressed and walk for ten minutes to the main dormitory. The canteen was in the main dormitory. Our principal lived in the main dormitory as well. Before breakfast, we would say our prayer. Breakfast was served at half past seven. We always ate more at breakfast. Let me tell you the reason for this later. The menu consisted of fish fingers, milk, bread, as well as two eggs. I wonder what sort of eggs they were serving as they were not like the eggs we found in Hong Kong. They were as small as quail’s eggs.
Eating Lunch and Sports Activities
We had lunch at twelve o’clock. People in Hong Kong seldom eat the kind of food that was being served. They were not gourmet food but in England, they were treated as valuable. The menu mainly consisted of meat pie and a type of pie called Shepherds’ Pie which is made of mixed meat, minced beef or lean ground meat. We drank water at lunch and had trifle or something similar to jelly for dessert. After lunch, we would have class until three o’clock. Then it was sports time. My participation in sports had helped me to grow in size and became quite muscular today. In England, sports were compulsory. You’ve got to choose to join either the football team or the rugby team. Honestly speaking, I had participated in both before, but after playing rugby once, there would not be a second time for me because when I arrived in England, I was fourteen years old, but most of my British classmates were already strongly-built and as tall as a mountain (Translator’s note: Leslie exaggeratedly described them as ‘tall as a mountain’), so how could I play rugby. If I happened to bump against anyone of them, I would surely be injured! So I was assigned to play football instead. Of course, I could never be a goalkeeper because the goal was of international standard size: 24m. I therefore took the position of either the left wing or the right wing. Basically, I don’t think Chinese people run slower than the westerners. As long as we are not expected to run for a long time, we are just as competitive as them. My other friend was not too keen on sports. He had even asked his father to write a letter to the school giving an explanation that he suffered from poliomyelitis during childhood, so as a result, he was exempt from sports. Hence I was the only Chinese who could mix well with the westerners because there were only two Chinese students in the entire school.
Eating DinnerTime flown. I would say that life in England was rather boring. Saturday was the best day of the entire week, especially for the English people because Saturday could be defined as a day when ‘an animal’ is released from its cage [Translator’s note: Leslie didn’t mean to be impolite here because it’s common for Chinese to describe a child who is released from class as “an animal being released from its cage”]. It was because my school was an all-day school with classes from Monday to Friday, so there weren’t too many holidays for us. So everyday after school, we did not get to go home like the students do in Hong Kong. There were only two day-time students, who lived near the school, were allowed to go home every day. For the rest of us, some three hundred students who attended all-day school, had to stay at the residence all the time.
We finished sports at around three o’clock in the afternoon. At five, we would go to what we called ‘Prep Library’ for revision. Two teachers would be patrolling the area. Basically, those teachers did not really care what we did in the library. It didn’t matter if we chose to study, draw comic cartoons or play Tic Tac Toe. At eight o’clock, the bell would ring and we would go back to our residence. I don’t know whether you are familiar with a movie named ‘Oliver Twist’ or not. The same kind of dinner was served on us as was shown in that movie. We would each take our own mugs and they could pour milk tea, or something like Ovaltine, in them. We were also given two pieces of biscuits and then had to survive a memorable night with nothing more.
Supplementary Diet- Instant Noodles
If you have a body size like Brenda Lo Yip Mei (She was a famous DJ who was pretty plump. She was a friend of Leslie), you might want to consider studying abroad because you could lose many pounds very easily. A lot of foreign students found that the meal in England was unappetizing. Most of them disliked fish fingers and Shepherds’ Pie. Many of them would write home to complain that they did not have enough food so their families would either send them more pocket money or some instant noodles as supplementary diet. Theft was quite common back then in the residence. We slept on bunk beds. Next to our beds, there were some lockers for us to put our essential items. On a couple of occasions, our boxes of instant noodles disappeared mysteriously. We therefore complained to our Geography teacher who, out of compassion, agreed to let us use his kitchen. Do you want to know how we cooked the instant noodles before we had access to the teacher’s kitchen? Let me tell you about it. In the residence, there were hot and cold water taps. We would let the hot water run for about five minutes until it became very hot, then cautiously opened the packaging trying to keep it in good shape. We would then put the noodles in the plastic bowls that we bought. Afterward, we carefully poured in the hot water and immediately covered the bowl with the packaging placing our hands on top of it. After three minutes, the noodles still remained the same. It was only after about fifteen minutes that the noodles would be soft enough to eat. Nevertheless, instant noodles were considered a luxury snack back then because there was nothing much to eat apart from that glass of milk and a few biscuits. This went on for several months before we were allowed to use the kitchen of my kind-hearted Geography teacher.
My Geography Teacher
Talking about my Geography teacher, I still miss the time I spent with him very much. Unlike Geography, there was no experiment to do during classes for the History and English Literature subjects. I believe those who have studied abroad know well that there are many outings for Geography lessons. They are called ‘Field Trips’. I remember that our school was located near East Anglia in Norwich. We would take a bus in Norwich to go to the train station, then we would take a train to Leeds. Leeds is very close to Scotland which is more mountainous, whereas England itself is quite flat. It is in Scotland that one can find beautiful sceneries like waterfalls and mountains.
Leeds University and Returning to Hong Kong
I remember watching a film called Fourteen Heroines (Sup Sei Lui Ying Hung) when I went back to Hong Kong for holidays. There were many famous female casts such as Ho Lei Lei, Lee Ching, Lee Lai Wah, etc.
I remembered climbing at the Yorkshire district. There was a YMCA in Yorkshire. In the morning we explored some geographical elements, such as waterfalls and caves with stalactites. When we reached the mountain, its steepness was like those in Fourteen Heroines. It was very dangerous. I remembered while I was threading my way through a path below a cliff where we had climbed, there was something felling off the edge. Guess what it was -- it was a sheep! I remembered I studied for five and a half years in England; that is being promoted from Fourth Form to O-Level and then A-Level. Then I was awarded a scholarship in a school at Chelmsford to study at Leeds University. I studied Textile at Leeds. I studied for a little more than one year. The DJ is laughing now while I am saying that I have studied Textile. He thought that I would weave with a machine like the story of Sleeping Beauty. In fact there was quite a diversity of subjects in Textile. There were art direction, design as well as fine arts. Actually I was very interested in these subjects. I am sure if I have developed my interest in these areas, I will become a successful designer. Unfortunately in my second year in the university, I received a letter from home notifying me that my father was paralyzed due to constant drinking of alcohol. My father felt that he was useless and hopeless when he was paralyzed. He felt that it was time for his son to take over his business, and therefore he summoned me home to Hong Kong. When I went home, I felt there was nothing for me to do. However my father decided that I should not return to England. This is because he thought that I should be by his side in case he dies. I didn’t want to find employment yet because I was rather young at that time. I also did not want to take over my father’s business. Instead I got into Fifth Form in the middle of the course. I have never really told anyone about this. When I returned to Hong Kong, my English language has greatly improved and I scored an A in A-Level’s examination. At that time, the standard of English in the private schools in Hong Kong was actually quite low. I remembered the headmaster told me that I could actually teach English Language to Form Two or Form Three students and he asked me whether I would consider doing so. I replied that he was joking. In fact I insisted in attending Form Five because my Chinese language was not as competent as my contemporaries.
CHAPTER 6: GOING INTO SHOW BUSINESS
Taking part in Asian Singing Contest
Learning Chinese was very difficult, but it allowed me to understand the language at a deeper level. It was during that time when I studied in a certain school for over a year that I have met a group of friends who liked playing folk songs. And there was an opportunity where I joined a competition that gave me an introduction into the show business. It was a turning point in my life. That was May 1977, a classmate and my friend had a folk band and I was the lead singer. The band was called Onyx, which stands for a unique and brilliant black stone. Onyx competed in many competitions, in which we came the second or the third, but never the first. Then the TV station RTV, which is now the ATV, ran a singing contest. My friend signed us up, but he was disqualified right from the beginning and I managed to hang on until the finals. I was very lucky and came second in the Hong Kong region of the competition and then attended the pan-Asia final where eight countries participated. The scoring of the competition wasn’t very fair with regard to the Filipino judge. I remember it was a very tight competition between me and a Filipino singer. At the very last round, the Filipino judge gave me the lowest score in the whole competition which was 77 points, while the Hong Kong judges gave the other singer 93 points. So when it was averaged out in the final, I came fifth while the Filipino singer came first. If you are aware of the Hong Kong music history, you will know the winner of that competition was Marcado Ding. But really, the winner of the competition didn’t make a huge impact in my life at all.
Singing contract with RTV and Polygram Record
The fact that I didn’t win in the competition actually helped me to get more publicity as some people felt that the Filipino judge was not fair to a singer from Hong Kong. I felt it was like an overnight success to me. I met Mr. Chung King Fai on the following day after the competition, who has signed a contract with me and offered me $1,000 a month to perform in the RTV variety shows. The salary was very attractive, and I signed a three-year contract without hesitation. At that time, I really wanted to be independent of my family because I could no longer adapt myself to living with them after having lived in England for some time. I then rented a room near Broadcast Drive that cost $500 per month (laughed). You might ask me, ‘Leslie, how did you spend the remaining $500?’ Well I ate in the RTV Canteen in the morning, in the evening and at night. I have also borrowed a few thousand dollars from King Sir (the nickname of Chung King Fai), which allowed me to buy furniture and rent the room. He then deducted $100 from my monthly salary. So I had $900 to spend per month. In spite of this, I still managed to save a few dollars every month.
Photographed in his apartment. He rented this apartment after he had got a salary raise to $2,500 by ATV.
Before I came into the limelight, the public response was not ideal. In a way I was lucky as I could manage to sign a contract with Polygram as one of their singers. At the same time Chan Mei Ling, not the Hong Kong singer who has immigrated to Japan but the one with the English name Pat Chan has also signed a contract with the company. We ended up recording for an album compiled from a number of singles. I sang a song named ‘I Like Dreaming’. I remember the producer was a German-English producer who had recorded the song for me; however it was not well received. I received criticisms that I was immature and had a chicken-like voice. In the Pop Folk Music Festival in 1977, which was during the time when the Wynners (a famous band in the 70s in which Alan Tam was one of its lead singers) and Lam (a very famous male singer in the 70s) were very popular and were competing against each other. It was a very memorable event because it was the first time in my life that I was booed by an audience of over 2,000 people.
Being Booed for the First Time and My First Movie
I still remember well the first time when I was being booed. I wonder why this had happened to me. I had not done anything wrong. I still remember that I was wearing a red T-shirt and white trousers. The audience shouted at me saying “Get off the stage!”. It was like that. It was the first time I performed in public after the singing contest. In those days when everything was full of uncertainty, of course I wanted to get hold of every opportunity presented to me. Everyone would do the same thing and I was of no exception. I remember well that my singing career at the early stage was like “a person running into a rock”, full of despair and obstacles.
A movie company asked me to make a movie for them and that was also my first wrong move in the movie world. I still have a strange feeling when thinking of it now.
When people are at their lowest point, bad luck always seems to be following them. At that time, there was a film producer who was quite famous already. He gave me a call and asked me to go and see him. When I arrived, he told me that he would like to make a comedic version of “The Dream of the Red Chamber (The Story of the Stone) (紅樓夢)”. I then asked him who the main actress would be. He said it would be Wong Hung Sau [the then TVB]. I was overwhelmed to be able to make a movie with her. Another reason why I was so happy was that it was going to be my first movie in which I would be the lead actor. The result was really disappointing. I was paid $6,500. At that time, such a reward was relatively low, but to me it was really a very big temptation since it was my first job with the highest pay so far. I therefore accepted his offer.
After the contract was signed and several days’ scenes were shot, I discovered that there was something wrong. I found out that this so-called “The Dream of the Red Chamber” comedy had put in a lot of indecent elements. I was told that a powerful organization was behind the scene, and no one could guarantee the safety of anyone. Under those circumstances, I could only remain silent and keep on filming. When the movie was played on the big screen, the response was very good, but eventually it was banned by the Film Censorship. The reason of course was it contained too many scenes of nudity and obscenity. I therefore had to suffer the injustice and after that, bad luck was with me for several years (laughed bitterly for several seconds). All these times, I tried not to talk about this movie because it was my first movie. Furthermore, I was being cheated to play in it. After this bad experience, I vowed that I would not step into the movie industry again.
Taking part in RTV drama series
With that decision in mind, I therefore only appeared in the Rediffusion TV singing in its variety shows in order to keep myself in the limelight. At the later stage, the variety shows were all cancelled, the reason being that there were not enough singers. I therefore did not have anything to do for almost three months. At that time, Mak Don Hung’s [TV producer and director] power had risen and he had filmed some soap operas, like “Crocodile Tears (鱷魚淚)”, “Big Hero (大丈夫)”, etc. He asked me to try and take up a role in the soap opera “Crocodile Tears” and felt that I did have some potential in acting. As a reesult, he asked me whether I was interested in joining the TV soap operas group, i.e. the drama group. At that time, the only thing I really cared about was to have work to do.
I therefore joined the drama group and thereafter had filmed several soap operas that had a much better response than the previous ones. They included “Pairing (對對糊)”, and “Agency 24 (甜甜24味)”. They were all made aiming at teenagers. That period of time lasted for almost two years. During that time, I met an agent introduced to me by Roman Tam. This man was Roman’s ex-agent, as well as my ex-agent. During that time, I got to know Danny Chan Pak Keung. People at that time were interested in filming teenage movies, I therefore had also worked with Danny in two movies; one was “Encore (喝彩)” in which I played the role of a bad guy; the second one was “On Trial (失業生)”, I was a bad guy again. I don’t know whether or not it was the case then that the female fans at that time were far more innocent and naive, they felt that I was a bad guy in those movies, therefore in their mind I was a bad guy in real life. Hence I had been a bad guy for many years.
With respect to my recording career, it did not look good either. Nobody wanted me to make any records for them any more. Moreover, one day when I went to Polygram [record company], Mr. Fung Tim Chi, an executive of Polygram told me, “Your contract has already expired. You have recorded two records for us, a Chinese one and an English one. The response was not very ideal. I believe you may now choose your own recording company. We don’t think there is a need for us to continue working with you.” At that time, I was really upset but I did not tell my peers about this. Therefore for a long time, a lot of my friends thought that I was still with Polygram until I told them one day that I had already quit. Perhaps somehow there is always a silver lining, because at that time, there was a new challenge waiting for me.
Leslie’s earliest days taking part in quite a number of TV dramas in ATV. Photographed with a very popular TV actress.
Taken outside the building of ATV. Apparently he had just finished shooting one of the traditional Chinese TV drama series.
New Challenge
This new challenge was that I started my long journey of singing tours. During that period of time, although I did not earn a lot of money, for someone who hadn’t gotten much to do, it certainly was a good way to kill the time, and no matter what happened, it was still a job. During that era, although the heat wave of the soap operas such as “Gone with the Wind” and “Fong Sai Yuk”, in which I played a role, was over in Singapore and Kuala Lumper (the “heat wave” I just referred to was the Poon Chi Man’s [a TV actor] era of “Chameleon”), however there were still a lot of people who were curious and would like to have a look at those actors who had potential and yet were not popular at all, and one of them was me.
Singing Tours in Singapore and Thailand
Since “Gone with the Wind”, “Crocodile Tears”, and even “Tai Chi Master” – that type of traditional kung fu soap operas – were played in Singapore and Malaysia, I therefore had the chance to go to Singapore on a singing tour. The difference between performing in Singapore and any other countries was that the number of performances there were more than anywhere else, thus I had a better income. On one occasion, I continuously sang for 21 straight days with two performances daily. You may calculate for me, twice a day for 21 days was a total of 42 performances. After all these performances, my voice became hoarse, but then I gave the people a feeling that I always did my very best and worked very hard, therefore after that contract was over, there came another new one, and the reward got higher. To me, that was a kind of encouragement.
The friends in Singapore did not show much enthusiasm, but I was pleasantly surprised in Thailand since I was regarded as a superstar there. The reason was that the traditional kung fu soap opera “The Spirit of the Sword (烷花洗劍錄)”, in which I played the role of Fong Bo Yee, was very well received and popular there. The heat lasted for three years long. I did not believe it to be true at the beginning, until one day I received a letter from a fan in Thailand, I then knew that I did hold some position there. As a result, I went there four times doing my so-called solo concerts. Each time the concerts were soundly and dramatically presented and there were many friends [i.e. fans] showing up to support me.
At that time, I realized that no matter how despair the situation was, there would certainly be a way out. In Thailand, I came to know some friends who were very kind and willing to lend a hand, for example, the superstar Ka-Ling [famous Cantonese actress of the 60s] who I believe you all still remember well. Ka-Ling is living a very happy and peaceful life in Thailand. She has a pair of children. She and her husband have a very intimate relationship. They are living a wealthy and happy life. Ka-Ling would show hospitality to entertainers from Hong Kong who visited her. That time when we were in Thailand performing, the whole crew went to her house and she treated us with chicken soup cooked with abalone and shark’s fin and many other precious and delicious food. Until now Ka-Ling is still my good friend.
The Unforgettable Experience in Filming “The Teenage Dreamer”
After returning to Hong Kong from singing tours, I discovered that the movie industry in Hong Kong was blooming. Several movie companies asked me to act in their movies. Although they were not big productions, at least I had an opportunity to do something that I liked. At that time, the movies that I filmed include “The Teenage Dreamer” produced by the Shaw Brothers, also “Energy 21” produced by Lo Wai Movies Company, and at the later period, “Nomad”, “The Drummer”, “The First Time” and many others. But among those movies, the one that I remembered fondly was “The Teenage Dreamer” because it was the first teenage movie in Hong Kong with a box office of more than HK$5,000,000.
Although for me this could serve as stimulation, the company that produced this movie however did not show any appreciation. At least, it never sent me any congratulations or encouragement. I remember that when “The Teenage Dreamer” was made, we had to go to Macau once to shoot the scene, this production company however treated me badly. I was told to share a room with a lighting engineer. Basically I did not mind doing so because one was not supposed to take things seriously when you had to be out of town shooting the film, but I felt that they had a very poor system. They thought after giving you a small amount of money they could exhaust you in whatever way they liked. I therefore rented a room for myself. With respect to songs, I tried to assign someone to write the lyrics of the songs for me but they refused saying that it was too expensive. They merely asked me to get someone from the Marketing Department to help me with the lyrics.
The other movie that I remembered well is “The Drummer”.
I was deeply hurt by this girl
The woman who affected me the most was the one who almost made me forever dislike women. I met this woman in a disco. In 1981 to 1982 at the lowest point of my career, I spent a lot of my days in discos. At that time, I met a woman who was a mixed. When I first met this woman, I was holding the feeling as Marlo Brando held for the actress in the movie “The Last Tango in Paris”, i.e. now you only need my body and not my name. Bearing this in mind, I communicated with her several times. I think she must have known my name, but I never asked for hers. After having an affair, we kept our relationship for quite some time until I asked her for her name, as I was planning to maintain our relationship.
I then later discovered that this woman was a swindler. Her methods and techniques of swindling were really high. When I now recall that bad experience, I still find it disgusting. She was not merely capable of cheating my love and money, she almost cheated on my family too. I feel that to me this was really a very big insult. At least my feeling towards her was out of kindness and affection, but she hurt my sentiment deeply. In that period of time, I once tried to avoid her and moved away from my home and stayed in a hotel because she tried to get some gangsters to harass me. After this incident, I completely lost interest in some of the women. As a result, all the friends around me after this incident were all male friends, for example, Paul Chung of Commercial Radio was one of my male friends. Of course he had a lot of girlfriends, but he was not serious about them.
CHAPTER 7: DANNY CHAN PAK KEUNG
I came to know Danny Chan in the year 1978
I don’t know what my recording company’s reaction will be towards the things I am going to say, but I feel that since this is my autobiography, I must tell the truth. I don’t want to make up any story. If it does not hold any truth, then I better quit doing this show. I met Danny Chan in 1979. Oh, no, it should be 1978. In 1978, I was still doing some variety shows at the Rediffusion Television [now ATV]. One day, Cheung Mei Lin and I went to a restaurant called “Bang Bang Restaurant”. This Bang Bang Restaurant, which has now gone out of business, was right behind the Hyatt Hotel. If you know the Tsimshatsui area well, you would know that there is a restaurant called Palm Restaurant and Bang Bang was in that area. When I was chatting happily with Sung Ho Fai and Cheung Mei Lin, a boy suddenly came over and said, “Hey, some people said that you and I look very alike!” I was stunned and said, “Who are you?” He said, “My name is Danny”. That’s the first time I met with Danny whom you knew well later on as Chan Pak Keung.
My friendship with Danny Chan
I had a lot of opportunities to run into Danny under different circumstances. For example, he later entered into a song composition competition and got the 2nd runner up. After that, he occasionally performed at the TVB EYT (“Enjoy Yourselves Tonight 歡樂今宵”) shows singing English songs. At that same time, I was performing at Rediffusion singing other people’s Chinese songs. Sometimes he would come over and wait for me to get off from work. I didn’t feel anything then because we were just friends anyway. This situation went on for some time. And then one day, I went with Francis Yip Lai Yee, Yip Chun Tong and Danny Chan Pak Keung to Macau to hold a mini concert at the “Kung Hau Theatre”. At that time, I had a feeling that this boy must be very wealthy because many things he used were really expensive, including Louis Vuitton (“LV”) which is very popular now. He already used that brand name then; a big LV trunk. He also had many Cartier rings and necklaces. I already knew a little bit about him then since sometimes we would go out together. He asked me to listen to a tape. Once it was finished I asked him, “Are those your new songs?” He said, “Yes.” I told him that the song I liked most was the one with the telephone tone at the background. I think you know by now which song I was referring to. It is “Shedding My Tears for You (眼淚為你流)”. After that period of time…oh, no…we had not reached that period of time as yet. We arrived in Macao in the afternoon of that day. The tape I just mentioned was being played in the hydrofoil. Some broadcasters came to interview Francis [Yip Lai Yee], Yip Chun Tong and me, but no one took any notice of Chan Pak Keung. I told them that, “This is Danny Chan, if you’ve seen the EYT shows, you probably would have seen him performing there. Why don’t you interview him too?” At that time, a broadcaster from Luk Chuen Radio unwillingly interviewed him and asked him a few questions. Later, “Shedding My Tears for You” became a big hit and made Chan Pak Keung a star.
Danny Chan (left), Leslie (middle), Alan Tam (right). Danny Chan had passed away in 1982 due to overdose of pills.
Working with Chan Pak Keung (Danny Chan)
I knew Danny had an agent who later also became my agent. At that time, I had shot two movies with him. The first one was “Encore (喝彩)” in which he played the role of a positive character while I played the negative one as a bad student. At that same time, he released the song Encore which got very popular. I was, however, recognized by some minority, well, actually I should say a lot of film producers. He knew that his skill in filmmaking was not as good as mine, so when the second movie “On Trial (失業生)” was about to be shot, he refused to act in the same movie with me. But the director Fok Yiu Leung, who had also directed the movie “Dream of Young Sprout (豆芽夢)”, insisted on casting me in. At last, he interacted unwillingly with me in that movie. Many people complimented me for the movies I’ve made, but Danny outshone me in singing. The situation remained like that for a long time.
Under those circumstances, we felt that there was a conflict between us. Sometimes when we met, we would feel uneasy and unhappy. This went on for a long time until Paul Chung hurt his leg during the shooting of a TV drama. I was the first person who held his leg and took him to the hospital to have x-rays taken. At that time, our agent came up with an idea to raise money, that is to hold a fundraising concert for Paul to pay for the medical care of his leg. I and Danny performed on the same stage again. I was the one who performed first and he last. At that time, I felt that the competition between us, for fame and gain, was too big. I just didn’t want to have any kind of collaboration with him anymore. So at the preview of “On Trial”, I announced to the press that I would not have any kind of collaboration with Danny either in movie or in music performance any more. But to say is always easier than to do. Say, this year, I had a small part in the movie “Merry Christmas” [in which Danny Chan played the main role] and he was not very pleased.
Danny Chan didn’t want to be in the same movie with me
Then later, we sang and danced together at the “100,000 Hours” TV show. I didn’t know what his reaction was at that moment, but I felt that there was no need for me to compete or compare with him. Especially during this couple of years, our images and singing styles have turned out to be very different from each other. I won’t say there’s a distance between us, I can only say that our images and singing styles are not the same. I can’t compare with him anymore. Now I feel that less and less people are comparing me with him and it is a good thing for both of us because if comparison is being made with the same person for too long, you will only go backward. Therefore I feel that now I still need comparison, but it’s a comparison with myself only, and not with anyone else. I hope the audience who is listening to me today does not compare me with any superstars. If you want to make a comparison, just compare yesterday’s Cheung Kwok Wing with today’s Cheung Kwok Wing.
CHAPTER 8: MY TURNING POINT
My first encounter with Florence Chan
At that time, I started to have some disagreement with my agent on financial matters. I discovered that he was very unclear on money matters. As well, I sensed that he was trying to cheat me on money. It turned out to be that I had to drive a hard bargain with him, but he still refused to give me back the money I deserved. We even had to go to court to get the matter settled. But I don’t know why eventually none of us got any money back. During that time, I met a director by the name of Yeung Kuen, who later shot the movie “The Drummer (鼓手)” in which I played the leading role. He introduced me to a company that became very important to me in my career and served as a turning point in my life. “The Drummer” that Yeung Kuen directed had a lot of songs and original score in it, he therefore could not give up the idea of recording those songs merely because I had some disagreement with my agent. He therefore introduced me to Florence Chan, an agent from Capital Artist Inc., a music recording company. When I chatted with Florence, she asked me how much I had in mind. I told her that I didn’t think money was an issue, all I wanted was to release those songs that I had recorded. As a result, I signed a two-year contract for 24 cuts with Capital Artist. The money I got from the contract was neither small nor huge, just fair. At that time, I met Michael Lai again.
Monica and other albums produced by Capital Artist
Michael Lai is a good friend of mine whom I first met at the Rediffusion Television -- a friend that the outsiders refer to as my godfather. He was the producer of my first album at Capital Artist. The one good thing about Capital Artist is that it may use a lot of Japanese songs without the singers worrying about the copyright issue. Therefore I ventured to pick a few Japanese songs and used them in my album. For example, “The Wind Blows On (風繼續吹)”, the song now you are all very familiar with which was in my first album at Capital Artist. The reaction wasn’t great when that album was first released, really not good at all. It was worse than we expected. When we took the album to the DJs, they all said it was pretty good but they never put in any effort to make it a big hit. But perhaps I was lucky; people liked the song more and more. The number of people who wrote to the radio stations to dedicate this song was getting more and more. This began a new stage in my career. At the same time, I signed with TVB as a contract singer and therefore had many opportunities to attend its musical shows, such as the Jade Solid Gold. I was happy to be at the Jade Solid Gold shows because the MTVs they made were really good. Then what followed were “A Bit of Craziness (一片癡)”, “Monica” and “Love You Deeply (為你鍾情)” that came out just recently. They were my works after joining Capital Artist. The production of “Monica” was quite a coincidence. People may be curious about how I came up with the song “Monica”. I remember that I attended the 1983 Tokyo Music Festival watching the Tiger Kids perform in that festival. My impression of the Tiger Kids is not very clear although they are also singers from Hong Kong. While I was there, I met a novice Japanese singer called Koji Kikkawa who just released a new song “Monica”. Koji Kikkawa was not a celebrity at that time in either Japan or HK but I was attracted to his style on stage, i.e. his backward somersault and his song which I found very cute. When Michael and I watched his performance at the festival, I told Michael that that song might have a chance to become a hit in Hong Kong. Since we were also in the process of making the album ”Leslie Cheung-Monica” at that time, we therefore got the copyright of that song and included it in the album. Finally, it was well received by all the fans. My subsequent records, including the latest one “Honestly Loving You”, received really good response.
Florence Chan and Michael Lai
Personnel relationship in big companies is always complicated, but it is not so in Capital Artist. People there are very friendly. Of course when it comes to work, there will always be disagreement, but it is just to make things more perfect in an artistic point of view. There are two persons who have been most helpful to me. One is Florence. She helps me a lot in dealing with records production matters. Take the album “Honestly Loving You” as an example. I wanted to have the album produced on white plastic surface, she therefore immediately made a call to Japan to place an order. You can imagine how much she has done for me.
Another one that I want to talk about is Michael Lai who has changed me a lot in the music world. The thing that I want to say about him is too much. I don’t know what the other people’s reaction towards him is, or perhaps they only think that he is a rude and asperity person who beats his wife. Actually Michael Lai, although he looks careless, is quite punctilious. I mean when it comes to work, he is a very talented person. Sometimes he may be very traditional and conservative at work. When a song goes to his hand, he will not modify it too much. Let’s take William Kwan Wai Luen as an example, he modified Alan Tam’s song “The Trap of Love (愛情陷阱)” into a song which is completely different from the original Japanese version which was sung by a girl. Michael Lai will never do that, but he does have a lot of musical sense. He was born with it. Perhaps not too many people know that Michael used to play in a band. His band used to play at Fu Yiu, or Ha Wai ("Savoy") . Even at the era of Pearl City, he played in a band. We don’t have to say much about his childhood because a lot of people know that he had made a lot of movies when he was small and was a gifted young actor. However, as he got bigger, his size grew too, so is his wallet [income].
It’s not easy to be the head of the music department in Capital Artist. I respect Michael a lot because he has helped me tremendously in music by giving me a lot of guidance, besides, he has done a lot for me, things that the others are not aware of. For example, he did something that he did not have to do, such as playing the synthesizer and electric piano for me in the song “The Young Girl’s Concern (少女心事)” in my album. As a producer, he didn’t have to do that for me, but still he had done so and with heart and I am really grateful to him. Also once in a celebration party, Michael burst into tears because of the big success of my album. I’ve never seen him crying during our eight years of friendship, not even when he was really unhappy about his married life with his [then] wife Susanna Kwan Koak Ying or when they had to separate and divorce. At the party, he cried because he was touched seeing more than a hundred people present in my celebration party cheering for me. What else can I say? How can I ask for more since I already have such a good friend?
CHAPTER 9 – THE MOST IMPORTANT WOMEN IN MY LIFE
The Most Important Woman “Luk Che”
There are a few women who hold a very important place in my heart. Some of them whom I expect to be the special persons do not turn out to be the ones. I think a lot of audience will find this very amazing. A woman who is now over seventy and still holds the most important place in my heart, just like the woman in my song “Monica” whose position can never be replaced, is “Luk Che (六姐)”. For those who have followed my so-called “unofficial history” will know that she is the nanny who brought me up, takes good care of me and makes me healthy and happy.
To me, she is more than a nanny. Her position has already surmounted my mother’s. Maybe for those who have been listening to my autobiography know that I have never lived with my parents. Therefore the relationship between my parents and me are just like friends, or perhaps not even as close as my friends. Let us go back to Luk Che. Luk Che is a very persistent and stubborn woman, but she has a heart of gold. She is a really ugly woman. She has been with me for 28 years. In those 28 years, perhaps I am too used to her look, I am not afraid of seeing her face anymore, or perhaps I feel that she is a very lovely woman. But at least when my friends came and visited me, they would be very frightened and said, “Your maid looks very fierce”. That is because they don’t understand her.
I think that we need a relatively long period of time in order to understand a person well. One’s look is merely a shell. To understand someone well, you have to start from his/her character, then you will be able to fully know him/her. I cherish Luk Che very much because when I was down and despair, and even now when I am doing a bit better, she is always with me. Perhaps many people would say she must have helped me with my study, but she cannot do that because she is an illiterate. She doesn’t know how to teach me to read or write. At some stage, I even forced her to study ABCD. But at least she teaches me how to be a real person. Maybe for us her viewpoints are a little bit old-fashioned, but at least I know that her intention is good. She will not teach me anything bad, but always tells me how to treat others kindly and how to handle things nicely.
She has been with me for 28 years although we did live apart for two to three years, but at least we are together most of the time. Even though I have now just moved to a new house, I can’t live without her because I’m too used to having her around. Sometimes when she has to go back to her ancestral town in China to be with her relatives, I felt lost. It’s not that I can’t make my own breakfast because I used to cook myself breakfast and lunch when I was in Britain. But, if I don’t have her by my side, I will be ill at ease. No matter how intimate it is with a lover; I won’t feel sad having to live apart from her or if she has to leave me one day because I can always find someone else, but if one day Luk Che disappears, I mean if she passes away, I will be very very devastated.
No one can replace “Luk Che”
At the lowest point of my life, I didn’t even have ten dollars in my pocket because at one point in time, my relationship with my parents was really bad, mainly caused by my sister. I even refused to accept any help from my father on daily commodities and food. Luk Che never scolded me or said anything to the effect that I was wrong, thus not feeding me. On the contrary, no matter what happened, she would feed me even if she had to use her own money to do so. Luk Che was never paid well. My family always took advantage of her. She received only a few hundred dollars [a month] when I was born. When I was about twenty-one years old, she left me for the first time, yet she still got paid the same amount of money. But her salary has always gone to her relatives. I don’t know if it’s because she is a Shun Tak (“順德” a city in southern Guangzhou) native by birth, so she is very obedient. (The pronunciation of Shun Tak in Cantonese is similar to “obedient”.)
Therefore, every time when her relatives from Shun Tak write to her, the first thing they ask for, after the greeting, is money. She will always send her savings to her family. The reason why she had to leave me the first time was because she felt my family treated her unfairly and besides at that time her sister had got cancer. At that time, she felt that she needed to earn more money to pay for her sister’s hospital bills, so she found another job. I felt really unbearable then, but I didn’t know how to help her or myself. All I could do was watching her leave. Maybe some people are destined to be together. I have a destiny to be with Luk Che. Until now we are still together, so I think she is the woman who has been kindest to me in my life.
My relationship with my mother
Talking about my mother? She is one who I expected to be the woman who’s kindest to me and closest to me, yet she is not. Maybe because of my father she has suffered too much sentimentally, therefore she hasn’t taken much care of her children. I felt bad at that time because I could only see her once a week on Saturday night. She would not spend the night at our place either. My father was even worse. He would only come by for dinner and visit his children during the festivals like Dragon Boat Festival or Mid-Autumn Festival. When we saw him during the Chinese New Year, he was always drunk. I remember the longest time he spent with us was 36 hours, that was a little more than one day, and he was drunk. My mother still behaves courteously when she is with me now. When she has to use the washroom when she visits me, she will ask, “May I use your washroom?” I think this is ridiculous, but this kind of thing does happen to me. My relationship with my mother now is merely based on money, i.e. every month when we get paid, it is her time to get paid too as she will ask me for a certain amount of money. She now has her own flat and property and therefore does not have to worry too much about financial matters. I feel this is the very little thing that I can do for her to show my care.
My godmother
Many people said that,” Leslie Cheung, you have a lot of godmothers!” “That is right, I have a godmother”. The term “godmother” has been incorrectly interpreted by many people. They interpret godmother as a “sugar mummy” who would give me money in order to get something from me in return. This has never happened to Leslie Cheung. My so-called godmother is a pure and sincere woman. I only have one godmother who lives in Singapore. She has an extraordinary background. She was abused by her husband, thus she left him as a result. She has three children. She was once a dance hostess. At that time, dance hostesses only danced with the guests and would not make any sexual transaction. She was that kind of dance hostess. Then she became a mamasan by chance. After being a mamasan for a while, she started running a brothel until now at the red light district in Singapore. My godmother is such a woman. I feel that between us we have a kind of communication that needs not be expressed in words. Many people would think that entertainers are ruffians and whores. Only she will understand me, so I’ve told her many secrets from my heart. My godmother is a woman with indomitable spirit. She has suffered a lot of hardship in the past. Imagine how hard it was for a woman to go to Singapore from Malaysia to be a dance hostess, and then eventually running her own brothel by herself. It’s really unusual. She has been around all these years seeing a lot of ups and downs.
I like to make friends with people who are more mature and older than me because I can learn a lot from their real life experience. Maybe you think I don’t look my age. But I think my mentality is very close to my real age or even more mature. Oh, this godmother! Many entertainers would pay their respects to her when they go to Singapore because she is loyal to people around her. Speaking about women who are loyal to their friends, other than my godmother, Anita Mui is another one.
Leslie and Anita
To clarify the rumors about Anita Mai
Anita Mui is the girl I like most as a partner in singing and acting. I can also say that she has helped me a great deal in my career. You may be wondering: “Are you kidding? Anita is just an up-and-comer.” That’s right. Perhaps if you are not that forgetful, you will recall that Anita received platinum records already for her first album “The Doubtful Red (赤的疑惑)” and her previous album (心債). Up to the album “The Doubtful Red”, her albums were sold for almost one hundred eighty thousand copies. Perhaps with the most recent estimate they might have been sold for over two hundred thousand copies. She became a big star right away when she first entered into the show business and was well received by the audience.
Of course, there are people running a smear against her alleging her to be a drug addict or even to have given birth to a baby in the past. These are all cheap shots. Other than Eddie Lau, I don’t think there are too many people who can be as close to her as me. When we were out of town on singing tours, we usually stayed in two separate rooms. But Anita was afraid of darkness, so she often left the door between us open. Although she sometimes liked to hang around in discos, she always behaved herself when she was on singing tours. She never came back late. I did the same. When on singing tours out of town, I would only spend my time in the hotel room. Don’t you believe it? When we were out of town, we always took with us a lot of the novels of Yik She (亦舒) and Eunice Lam Yin Nai (林燕妮) and we would read them in our hotel rooms. We almost had to read E Tak’s (伊達) novels too but did not do so.
One day, I saw Anita’s arms by chance. According to the paparazzi, that’s where the tattoos should be on. After seeing her right arm, I pretended to go to the bathroom in order to look at her left arm. However, I didn’t see any tattoos on her arms. I think the public doesn’t have to smear an up-and-comer like Anita who is so talented. I was smeared by the paparazzi too. They said I was on all kinds of drugs such as marijuana, etc. Anita’s arms, I believe, are softer than many other girls. Why doesn’t she wear short-sleeves clothes? It is because of her inferior complexity. Since her arms are extremely thin, she therefore chooses not to wear short-sleeves clothes. I don’t know if she would wear any now.
But I agree with her attitude -- “Even though you think I have tattoos on my arms, should I pull up my sleeves to show you that I don’t have them?” Until today, she still has not refuted the rumor. Only Eddie Lau and I are the two people who have seen her arms. The reason that Eddie Lau saw her arms is simply because he has to help her try on her fittings often. I don’t have any obligation to clarify this tattoo rumor for Anita, but I feel that there is no need for people to misunderstand her as a woman with tattoos. Having tattoos is only a personal choice. I’m not saying a woman with tattoos is morally unacceptable, but since in the public’s opinion, a man or a woman with tattoos is morally unacceptable, then I think I should clarify this for Anita. She is a woman who has influenced me a great deal, so I don’t want her to be falsely accused.
Anita Mui, a woman who is loyal to her friends
I just mentioned that she is loyal to her friends. You may be wondering how. I remember that last year when Anita and I went to Singapore and Malaysia on a singing tour, I suffered from bronchitis. Anita told me to go back to my room to get some rest. She then spent the whole night until dawn practicing all the songs I was to sing. There were over 10 songs. It’s not something that could be done in half an hour as you imagine it to be, instead it took her four to five hours to practise them. She didn’t have to do that for me. She did that simply because she is loyal to her friends and she cares about me. So I think she is a friend who is not easy to come by. I know she is very down-spirited right now and I hope she will stand up again very soon. I have already encouraged her. Apart from the sentimental side of life, she still has a lot to do in her career.
I don’t want to talk about my past history any more, as I have said enough. In fact, there are still many bits and pieces in my mind that I haven’t told you, however, I think they are of no significance. Perhaps I should maintain some privacy, but in any case, you have listened to the major part of my life story already.
CHAPTER 10: MY FUTURE PLAN
My concert – My commitment to the audience
What I want to talk about now is my plan for the future. I think it’s also the main concern of the audience. For example, about my concert which is coming up soon. People would ask me the number of shows I would do. What am I going to bring up for the audience this time? Before I do this special (autobiography) on air, I still haven’t finished planning my concert as yet. But I can tell you sincerely that it will be a real and pure Leslie Cheung’s concert. You won’t see other people’s shadows in my concert. This is a goal that I request the producers of my album and concert to achieve. This concert is very important to me. In my concert, I will show you the experience I have gained in these eight years in the show business including my performance on televisions, in movies and music. Therefore, my concert would probably be one full of visual and audio effects.
Some directors whom I want to work with
People should always keep progressing. What am I going to do next after the concert? I don’t know yet. I still have a lot of ambitions to fulfill. I want to be in the movies of some of the directors. For example, Tsui Hark. Many people claimed that it was tough to work with him in his movies. And I would also want to work with Ann Hui On Wah and Tam Kar Ming. Many people say Tam Kar Ming is to blame because all his movies got disappointing box-office results, but I still think he is a very talented director. Another director whom I will work with is Chor Yuen who has appreciated me ever since I entered into the show business, so I will give myself to him totally in the next movie. I hope he will make some nice films.
There are many directors whom I want to work with. I can’t list them all here. I don’t know how fruitful it will be after doing the concert. It is not my wish to hold the concert in order to receive a few more music awards from any television or radio stations. I just want to show the audience what I have been through and achieved in these eight years. I always feel that I have been lucky both in money-making and in my career. I have gone through thick and thin in the show business for eight years without holding a concert. But now I will have one at Hung Hom and will be facing four sides of audience. It will be a big challenge for me because I’ve never had that kind of experience before. I will however do my very best.
My dreams
I think many people do not know what my dream is. I really want to do a play. When I worked at the television station, the friend I like most is Man Chi Leung. I happened to come across him one day at a café shop and we chatted about doing a play together if we have the chance to do so. It will be a new challenge for me. After finishing my concerts and movies, I wish I could do a good play.
Perhaps you don’t know that I love to travel. I have been to many places including south-east Asia and Europe. After this concert, I will go to Europe again to be romantic for a while, or perhaps hang around trying to understand other people’s culture. In fact, time is very tight. The above are only a few of my dreams.
After my busy schedule, I wish I could do better in my love life. I believe everyone wishes to do well in both his career and love life, then it will be perfect. My career has been progressing significantly, but my love life is still a mess. Many people are wondering why I don’t get married at this age. Do I have to?! (Leslie makes a forced laugh).
I feel that it is quite enough if two people who are nice to each other can live happily together. Otherwise, even if you are married, you will still end up separating or getting a divorce. I feel that a piece of marriage certificate is merely an invisible burden.
In the near future, I will work harder to achieve a better result and to make you feel that in my artistic life I have given you my fullest. I will try to do the best. I think I will not stay in the show business for too long. I will retire after a certain period of time. Before that day arrives though, I hope I could make all of you remember me and try not to forget me. Sounds pretty vicissitudinary, isn’t it? I’m not that vicissitudinary actually. People always have a lot of dreams to fulfill. Don’t think I will retire right away! Let me say again, I will work extremely hard to bring you more wonderful entertainment. It is not easy to tell you how I am going to breakthrough, but I just want to say: Thank you for your support! Thank you everyone!!
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