The loss still hurts – ten years on, Leslie Cheung is remembered

It will be 10 years today since Leslie Cheung Kwok-wing took his own life and left his legions of friends and fans with memories frozen in that exact moment.

The city that had raised and nourished him – and that he had once escaped from – didn’t really know how to react to the news as it came down the wires and flashed across television screens. After sitting down to a meal of spaghetti bolognaise at his favourite restaurant in Causeway Bay, Cheung made his way to the Mandarin Oriental in Central and asked for a seat on the balcony outside its health club. He asked for a drink, and for a pen and paper, and then at about 6.40pm, the 46-year-old’s body was found lying on the pavement, 24 floors below.

On the piece of paper, he had written his goodbyes to family and friends and mentioned his depression – a condition most of those close to Cheung knew he had been battling for years.

Cheung had never been far from the spotlight throughout a career that spanned more than two decades. The public had a long-held fascination with a man who had tried to keep his private life away from prying eyes, despite the attention that came with being one of the first Hong Kong celebrities to come out as gay.

In an instant, the city had been robbed of one of its brightest talents, a nuanced and lauded actor, a chart-topping singer and an artist who pushed the boundaries of performance on both stage and screen. It felt at the time like a blow to the very spirit of a city still caught up in the Sars outbreak.

With a decade now passed, the city will host a number of events dedicated to Cheung’s legacy – from the Hong Kong International Film Festival’s screening of his film Rouge tomorrow, to the 2013 Love Journey Leslie Cheung 10th Anniversary Commemorative Concert at the Hong Kong Cultural Centre on Tuesday, to “The Art of Leslie Cheung’s Movie Images” exhibition being staged at the Hong Kong Central Library until April 8.

These events will provide fans a chance to reflect on their own relationship with the man universally known as Gor Gor (“Elder Brother”), to hear from those who held him closer, and to enjoy once again the work that he left behind.