Have you read "Ming Pao" on April 1?On that day, a brother fan and I wrote a long article in Ming Pao about Leslie Cheung's contribution to culture.Today I will explain in more detail on a few topics.That brother fan is one of my students, her name is Zheng Shuhua, she used one sentence to describe her brother, I want to share it with you.There is a famous Chinese poet, Zang Kejia, who used a sentence to commemorate the death of Lu Xun. He said: "Some people are alive, but they are dead; some people are dead, but they are still alive." This sentence can describe us very well. from the bottom of my heart.My brother has passed away, how we can continue his culture, I think this is very important.
Today I will focus on media culture.I personally teach pop culture, media culture in the School of Journalism and Communication.We can see that today's media often mentions and reports about Gor Gor, but it ignores many of the cultural changes that Gor Gor brought us.We just heard Karen Mok's mother mention brother's "Unique", it is his "Unique" that has contributed to culture.
Since my brother passed away, we have seen many mourning activities. For example, we have seen many special commemorative programs for him on TV; there are film exhibitions on movies, such as Leslie Cheung's Light and Film Exhibition, etc. You may have attended it.This year's (2004) International Film Festival is also themed on Gor Gor and Anita Mui.
We may have attended many gatherings to commemorate my brother this year, or attended some activities of the Mandarin Hotel by ourselves.In the past year, there were many commemorative activities related to my brother. Although my brother is far away from us, he seems to be very close to us. In fact, my brother has become a part of our culture or a symbol or an icon around us. Every time I attend an event, I feel One of the things I have more to do with this atmosphere is that I recently saw that some activities to commemorate my brother have become discussions in the academic circles. I am very happy about this, which means that my brother’s culture is slowly continuing.The media’s interpretation of Gor’s cultural contributions is actually quite different from academic discussions. We have seen that the media did not reveal many things after Gor’s departure, such as his contribution to youth culture and gender culture.
After my brother left, the media focused on reporting on some commemorative activities or funeral activities for my brother, but rarely mentioned his contribution to culture.Relative to Sister Mei's departure, some high-ranking officials, such as Tung Chee-hwa and several high-ranking officials, sent wreaths in a very high-profile way, and took Sister Mei to the middle school to sing praises.The topic of elder brother is more or less considered sensitive, and it is rarely discussed at the level of middle schools. I have been to many middle schools to give speeches recently, and many teachers avoid this topic.
The older brother was a culture shock in more ways than one.In the 1980s, he brought up the rebellious youth culture. In the 1980s, his fans would be described as rebellious.In the 1990s, both on the level of performance and personal performance, it was an impact on the mainstream gender culture.Up to now, his suicide and so on are all unacceptable to the mainstream culture of Hong Kong society.
When we saw many media recalling some of my brother's activities during his lifetime, they were very cautious and cautious in these aspects.Can we change this social phenomenon so that brother culture can continue to be promoted?
I want to share with you the clips of my brother accepting the award in 1984 and 1985.One of the reasons is that I miss my brother very much, and the other is that these two episodes have special meaning to me.When I was very young, my deceased mother liked Leslie Cheung very much. I still remember that she watched it with me in front of the TV and sitting on a small chair.Today I am very happy to be able to express my feelings.Speaking of which, my mother is relatively open. I remember that at that time, the general newspapers would describe some fans who liked Gor Gor as rebellious young people. Back then, the media described the situation of his fans as uncontrollable.Back then, the fans of Gor Gor and Alan Tam were described in the newspapers as insulting each other and tearing up photos of each other's idols, etc. The reports gave people the impression that Alan Tam's fans were more gentle.
We saw the image of Leslie Cheung described at that time, a singer who sang "Monica", "Amour", and "Girl's Heart", in the eyes of parents, he was relatively frivolous, young and rebellious.So I am grateful that my mother sat in front of the TV with me to watch Leslie Cheung.Many songs back then, such as his "First Time", were criticized by the media as some works that had a bad influence on young people.In the past, the media reported young people and the youth culture related to the elder brother in this way. Today we see that the media seems to be suffering from amnesia.Back then they criticized Gor Gor or the bad youth culture related to Gor Gor. Today, the ones praising Gor Gor are the same media that criticized Gor Gor.When a person is popular, they praise him, and when he doesn't step into the mainstream cultural consciousness, they criticize him.For some youth culture back then, or today, when some singers become an icon or symbol of youth culture, the image that symbolizes some youth rebellion will often become the object of criticism, which is of course unfair to my brother, and Injustice to teenage culture.
One of my elder brother's contributions to youth culture was to bring a relatively unruly and rebellious youth image to the mainstream culture, so that he could appear on mainstream TV screens.Looking at it, what is youth culture today?Most people have the impression of being unruly and rebellious, which is slightly different from the mainstream consciousness.This little rebellious consciousness is exactly the creativity of today's teenagers. The voices tolerated by our media are actually too low. Only some very mainstream consciousness can be expressed. Some creative voices that are different from mainstream opinions are completely suppressed reported negatively.
History can prove that, taking my brother as an example, in fact, the fans sitting here today are a proof, we, as my brother's fans, are actually positive and can contribute to society.This is my brother's contribution to youth culture.
In the 1990s, my brother's contribution to Hong Kong's gender culture made Hong Kong's gender culture more diverse.I remember that after his elder brother came back to the music scene in 1997, he disclosed his love affair and his gay status.In movies, such as "Golden Branches and Jade Leaves" and "Happy Together", he expresses a charming gender expression and his sensitivity to gender.We have seen the media go from being homophobic to slowly learning to accept it.
The MV of "Big Heat" is a big dividing line in Hong Kong's cultural history.This is the first MV to annihilate all the established images of men and women, such as the clothes and costumes worn by men and women, etc. are combined on Leslie Cheung.Most of the Hong Kong media only agree with the established images of men and women, such as women wearing skirts and men wearing Yingwei, etc. They do not accept some non-established gender images.Brother can be said to have created one, which I call "the third gender". This third gender is another gender image besides the image of male and female.Culturally, Gor Gor is the first singer and entertainer in Hong Kong history to have a multi-gender cultural orientation.It is a pity that today's media is still in an attitude of ignoring this gender image.
Television is a mainstream media in Hong Kong, and such alternative gender images are completely unacceptable.Have you ever watched a TV series called "FM701" produced and broadcast on TV, in which it is to uglify the image of the brother "Big Heat", they use a certain character to accuse him of not being male or female, you can see The TV media is completely prejudiced and unacceptable to this image.In the later "Men and Women", one of the characters was played by Jiang Zhiguang. I think this is the first time that mainstream culture accepts a homosexual image on TV.
We saw that my brother was able to bring "Uniqueness" to the audience before these mainstream media accepted it, that is, he showed a single gender image different from mainstream culture.After my brother left, some TV programs to commemorate my brother will carefully select the clips to be broadcast. The clips of my brother's "Passionate Concert" will be some completely masculine images of my brother. We feel that in the concert and culturally It is an androgynous image, which has been deleted.This is disturbing.Today, even though Gor Gor is gone, the mainstream culture still has not fully accepted the image of Gor Gor, and in the future it will be up to everyone to promote this culture.Brother's breakthrough in gender culture is avant-garde, and we hope that one day our mainstream culture can accept it.
Gor Gor's gender culture and youth culture have become a collective memory in Hong Kong to this day.There are two aspects he left to us. The first aspect is the fragments we can see, some hardware, real and tangible things; but the greater contribution of my brother is actually some intangible things, some impact on our culture, For example, some "Unique" male and female images, "Unique" teenager images, etc.Today's media is only focusing on hardware, deliberately ignoring the fact that my brother's greater contribution to Hong Kong is some software and some cultural contributions - no reports or even incomplete and distorted reports.When will mainstream culture accept his unique side?It may be several years or decades, and it will depend on everyone's efforts.
As for my brother's fans and movie fans, how can we continue my brother's contribution to culture?One of the key points is worth thinking about. In fact, Karen Mok's mother has said it just now, which is the "I am myself, I am what I am" that my brother keeps emphasizing.As an entertainer, he has never deliberately intervened to change the mainstream culture or how he wants the mainstream culture to accept him. He just relies on his own identity and role to express what he wants to do, a role with a very unique gender , a very unique icon of youth culture, all he does is within his own duty, and he never expects the mainstream culture around us, our very conservative culture to accept it, this is something we can learn from.
We are all young people, and we can inherit one of the spirits of my brother, which is to learn one of his life attitudes.In the 1980s, when many media scolded my brother, I rarely saw reports that my brother came out to clarify, "I actually think what values teenagers have", he seldom talked about it.In the gender culture of the 1990s, when many media negatively reported his androgynous image, he did not come out to clarify what he wanted to do.Today, when we look back at the culture of Hong Kong, in fact, Gor has indeed added color and new elements of diversity to Hong Kong's culture in different eras.It is obvious that my brother has a clear attitude towards his own culture and his own direction.We want to learn and continue his spirit and culture, that is, to learn from his belief that he has a personal goal and direction and sticks to his own direction.
There are too few voices that the society can accept now. In the performance of the media, the creative thinking and creativity of some young people are buried, and the identification of some gender cultures is still handled in a low-key manner; today's mainstream media still Failed to fully accept my brother's culture.The extent to which Hong Kong accepts Gor Gor culture in the future will affect how the mainstream media treats, recognizes, and accepts so-called alternative cultures.In the end, I want to say that we are all just fans of my brother's songs and movies. We may not have the lofty status of my brother, and we will not make such a big contribution to Hong Kong's culture, but as long as we do our best, everyone will contribute to Hong Kong. My brother said a word, in the days to come, those clips of my brother that were deleted in the media are expected to become the mainstream of Hong Kong society.
The manuscript is compiled from the content of Dr. Feng Yingqian's speech at the Leslie Cheung Art Research Association & Brother Hong Kong website on April 3, 2004.
