Date: February 15 to April 6, 2023
Hours: Asian Library open hours
Location: Asian Centre foyer & Asian Library ground and upper floors (1871 West Mall) (map)(parking)

Co-presented by UBC Asian Library and the Department of Asian Studies, Leslie Cheung 張國榮: Hong Kong Icon (1956-2003) commemorates the 20th anniversary of the passing of the legendary Hong Kong actor, singer, and performer, Leslie Cheung Kwok-wing. In addition to books and scholarly journals, the exhibition features a collection of original Asian-language film posters from some of Cheung’s most popular and critically acclaimed films. These include A Better Tomorrow (1986), Days of Being Wild (1990), Farewell My Concubine (1992), Ashes of Time (1994), and He’s a Woman, She’s a Man (1994). The display also highlights a selection of vinyl records and promotional posters from albums such as The Wind Blows On (1983), Leslie (Monica) (1984), Summer Romance (1987) and Final Encounter (1989), among many others.

Colloquially known as “Gor Gor” (“Big Brother” in Cantonese), Cheung’s career coincided with a “Golden Age” of television, music, and cinema in Hong Kong during the city’s colonial, transitional, and immediately postcolonial period in the 1980s and 1990s. Over and above his talent as a performer and a composer, Cheung is remembered for his contribution to local and regional debates about LGBTQ identities at a time when queerness was far from being fully accepted. The exhibition draws attention to key dimensions of Cheung’s career, as well as to lesser known aspects of his life, such as his migration to and residence in Vancouver from 1990 to 1992.

The film posters and music memorabilia in this exhibition appear courtesy of loans from private collections in Hong Kong and the U.S., the latter collection associated with the University of Virginia. The exhibition is co-curated and organized by Dr. Su-Anne Yeo, Asian Studies, and Phoebe Chow, Asian Library and is supported by UBC’s Hong Kong Studies Initiative and the Department of Theatre and Film. The organizers would like to acknowledge the generous support of Dr. Lori Morimoto, Mr. Tony Chow, Ms. Annie Wu, Ms. Clarisa Tsun, Mr. Galileo Cheng, and Mr. Tad Doyle.

This exhibition is free and open to all.