In the 1980s, Hong Kong and Taiwan culture poured into the mainland like a tidal wave, bringing us a sense of long-lost freshness and leading the fashion trend of the times. Many stars, represented by the Four Heavenly Kings and Bi Zhou Cheng, soon became idols chased by young people in the mainland and attracted everyone's attention.
Some people have been popular for decades and are still at the top of the entertainment industry, and some people have suddenly fallen at their peak, leaving only the sad tears of stunned fans and the legends of their lives repeatedly played.
Their talent is so amazing, although they have been gone for a long time, but every anniversary, fans spontaneously hold commemorative events for them.
The stars below, their voices and smiles and the works they created are still remembered today.
1. Bruce Lee (27 November 1940 – 20 July 1973, aged 32)
In the headlines, the controversy surrounding Bruce Lee has endured, and according to different views, it can be roughly divided into "Dragon Powder" and "Dragon Black" - "Dragon Powder" believes that Bruce Lee has contributed to world cinema and martial arts, and is a well-deserved Chinese light; "Dragon Black" believes that Bruce Lee is just an actor, and he has not even played a formal fighting competition.
These controversies are due to the lack of understanding of Bruce Lee by most people, who only know that he has made films such as "Big Brother Tangshan", "Jingwumen", "Raptors Across the River", "Dragon Fights tiger fighting" and other films; in fact, he can remember in addition to movies, there are mixed martial arts ideas that transcend that era, and his pioneering act of redefining martial arts on a philosophical level.
In May 1959, Bruce Lee sailed alone to San Francisco, where he enrolled at the Edison School in Seattle. During this period, he opened a martial arts club while studying, and attracted the world's martial arts leaders with martial arts friends, and eventually founded the truncated boxing.
Later, he entered Hollywood and participated in many TV series and movies, such as "The Green Hornet" is his masterpiece.
Bruce Lee changed the image of the Chinese in the eyes of Westerners, and he was also a pioneer in the exploration of the concept of mixed martial arts.
Modern mixed martial arts (MMA) events were created by the Gracie family, but UFC president Bai Dana called Bruce Lee the "father of uncontroversial MMA", which is the most controversial place among netizens, in fact, Bai Dana himself has explained.
Bethana believes that the Gracie family did introduce mixed martial arts to the United States in 1993, but only to promote the Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu he founded. Bruce Lee put forward the idea of "eclecticism" as early as the 60s, he "will not identify only one genre", so Bruce Lee's fighting ideas are higher than the Gracie family, and he is the real "father of MMA".
In June 1971, Bruce Lee decided to return to Hong Kong and signed a contract with the fledgling Jiahe, eventually shocking the world with 4 films.
But on July 20, 1973, Bruce Lee died suddenly in Hong Kong due to cerebral edema caused by taking painkillers by mistake, and the legend of the superstar will be frozen forever on that day.
To this day, Bruce Lee is still a "world icon", including Connor McGregor, Manny Pacquiao, Kobe Bryant and other stars regard him as an idol, he is a well-deserved "Chinese light".
2. Fu Sheng (October 20, 1954 – July 7, 1983, aged 28)
Jackie Chan has always been a long-haired "mushroom head" image in his early films, some people say that he is to distinguish him from kung fu superstar Bruce Lee, but they do not know that his hairstyle is actually imitating Shaw's star Fu Sheng.
Unlike Jackie Chan, who came from a poor background, Fu Sheng was born into a wealthy family, his original name was Zhang Jingxian, and his father, Zhang Renlong, was a wealthy Hong Kong businessman and a good friend of Shaw director Zhang Che.
Although he was born rich, Fu Sheng had 11 brothers and sisters, so he neglected discipline from an early age, and because he had no desire to learn, he dropped out of school very early to work. Later, Zhang Che took a fancy to his 179cm tall man and witty and lively personality, let him participate in the kung fu film "Qiu Lianhuan" directed by himself, thus entering the film circle and soon becoming Zhang Che's royal male protagonist.
Bruce Lee died unexpectedly in 1973, but Shaw's Dillon, Chen Guantai, Fu Sheng, Qi Guanguan and others carried the banner of kung fu movies. Someone once said that if Fu Sheng had not died young, perhaps Jackie Chan would not have risen, and Shaw would not have lost in the fierce competition.
This statement is not a lie, Fu Sheng's personality is similar to Jackie Chan, and his appearance and temperament are indeed higher than Jackie Chan.
Fu Sheng has starred in more than 40 films, most of which are martial arts films, and throughout the 70s, he was the pillar of Shaw films.
At 10:30 p.m. on July 6, 1983, Fu Sheng and his brother Zhang Zhensheng had an accident on their way to the set of Clearwater Bay Road, and Fu Sheng was seriously injured and died in the early morning of the next day, at the age of 29.
Macau actress Zhen Ni is Fu Sheng's wife, the two were introduced by Dillon, the marriage was initially opposed by the parents of both sides, but after the marriage they have been in love.
Four years after Fu Sheng's death, Zhen Ni was conceived with frozen sperm left behind by him and gave birth to a daughter, Zhen Jiaping, who has not remarried so far, proving her loyalty to love with her actions.
3. Huang Jiaju (June 10, 1962 – June 30, 1993, aged 31)
On April 12, 2022, Beyond's classic song "Sea wide sky" became the first Cantonese song on YouTube to exceed 100 million viewers, with lyrics - "Forgive me for this life of unrestrained indulgence and love of freedom, and I am afraid that one day I will fall." Betraying the ideal, anyone can do it, even if one day only you and I are together", has always been considered to be a true portrayal of the life of the band's soul character Huang Jiaju.
Wong Ka-ju was born on 10 June 1962 to a poor working family in Hong Kong, a family of seven crammed into a small house of less than 30 square metres in Sham Shui Po, Kowloon City. He came out to work after graduating from high school, and at the age of 17, due to a neighbor moving, he picked up a broken bellows acoustic guitar from the garbage heap and threw away a broken bellows, thus beginning his musical legend.
In 1983, Huang Jiaju and Yip ShiRong, Deng Weiqian and Li Rongchao formed Beyond and started their rock and roll careers. At that time, playing music was almost equivalent to not doing business, they withstood the pressure from family and life, persevered all the way, the band members came and went, and finally identified Huang Jiaju, Ye Shirong, Huang Jiaqiang and Huang Guanzhong.
In 1986, Beyond signed with Kinn's Productions, chen, and then released his debut EP album "Forever Waiting", and in 1988, he signed a new Yibao, and his singing career began to go on the right track. From 1988 to 1992, Beyond released a total of 10 albums, giving birth to popular songs such as "Goodbye Ideal", "Really Love You", and "Glorious Years".
However, the highly commercialized Hong Kong market is not suitable for creators who insist on originality, and Beyond, who has no background and connections in the entertainment industry, has only received silver awards at the "Chi Chi Music" awards ceremony for 6 consecutive years. Wong Ka-koo, who was gradually disappointed in the Hong Kong music scene, took Beyond to sign a contract with Warner Records and went to Japan to develop, leaving only one sentence: "There is no music scene in Hong Kong, only the entertainment industry!" ”
Unfortunately, after arriving in Japan, Beyond still needs to participate in some variety shows to open up the market. On June 24, 1993, when Beyond was recording an entertainment program on Tokyo Fuji TV, Huang Jiaju fell from a 3-meter-high stage and fell seriously, and was sent to the hospital for nearly a week and still could not save his life, and finally died on June 30, at the age of 31.
Huang Jiaju once said: "Playing life to the end at once at the most brilliant time is eternity!" Despite his death for 29 years, his songs are still sung to this day and endure.
After the death of Huang Jiaju, Beyond, who lost his soul, persisted for many years and eventually went to disbandment, and Huang Jiaqiang and Huang Guanzhong turned against each other, and fans sighed every time they thought about it.
4. Chen Baiqiang (September 7, 1958 - October 25, 1993, aged 35)
In 1989, the TVB TV series "Duty" was introduced to the mainland, causing a great sensation, and its theme song "What to Ask for in Life" was even more popular.
The singer Chen Baiqiang, who sang this song, was gentle and elegant, with extraordinary temperament, and was sought after by young people, and what was unexpected was that at this time, he was plagued by depression and died unfortunately after 4 years.
Chen Baiqiang and Zhang Guorong both belong to EMI Records, and also come from a wealthy merchant family, and have studied at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music in the United States, although they started later than Zhang Guorong, they became famous earlier.
In 1978, the band Wen Na, which occupied half of the Hong Kong music scene, disbanded, which gave Chen Baiqiang the opportunity to rise, and several albums were popular, and he soon became a new idol.
After becoming famous, Chen Baiqiang's successive albums are all lyrical love song routes, and the company has created the image of the "melancholy prince" for him, even if he makes a cameo appearance as a "scumbag" college student in the movie "Autumn Fairy Tale", it is not annoying.
In order to break through himself, Chen Baiqiang wore a crystal mask at the 1985 Hung Hom concert and sang avant-garde songs, which caused an uproar among fans.
This painstaking performance was not recognized by the fans, so it attracted criticism from the media.
Soon after, Chen Baiqiang was hospitalized for hepatitis and was misrepresented by the reporter of the Good Things Gossip Weekly as AIDS. You should know that in the era when everyone in China talked about the discoloration of "Ai", an artist was rumored to have AIDS, which was equivalent to being directly sentenced to "death".
Chen Baiqiang's personality, which has always been low-key and unwilling to show his face, has led to rumors spreading more and more excessively, and in the end, even the people around him are difficult to distinguish between true and false. Under the attack of the media, Chen Baiqiang suffered from severe depression, but at that time, even his psychiatrist lacked understanding of depression and only diagnosed him with the so-called "emotional disease".
It was precisely because of the "emotional disease" and Chen Baiqiang, who had been plagued by depression for many years, finally attempted suicide on May 18, 1992, with alcohol and medicine, and he was sent to Queen Mary Hospital and died in a coma for 17 months.
During Chen Baiqiang's bedridden, Zhang Guorong once went to the hospital alone many times to see him, and what everyone did not expect was that Zhang Guorong also died of this disease 10 years later.
5. Teresa Teng (29 January 1953 – 8 May 1995, aged 42)
There is such a plot in the movie "Fanghua", the protagonist Chen Can plays Teresa Teng's record for Liu Feng, and after listening to "Ten Thousand Strands of Intense Love", Liu Feng commented that the lyrics of this song are "pure to the heart".
At the end of the 1970s, Teresa Teng brought a strong shock to the Chinese people with her unique artistic conception.
Some people say that Teresa Teng is the unforgettable collective memory of the 50s and 60s, when the tape recorder was one of the "three major pieces" that every family must have, long curly hair, flared pants, phoenix bicycle, are all trendy popular elements.
Teresa Teresa's image is noble and elegant, and her singing voice is sweet and moving, representing the ideal of freedom and the liberation of thought, and is the spiritual food of young people at that time.
Teresa Teresa is indeed good enough, she is fluent in Hokkien, Chinese, Cantonese, Japanese, English and Malay, with exquisite singing skills and a kaleidoscopic style.
This enabled her to gather high popularity in Asia in that era when information was not developed, and she was selected as one of Time magazine's "World's Top Ten Most Popular Female Singers" and "World's Seven Most Popular Female Singers".
Teresa was born into a poor family with 3 older brothers and 1 younger brother, and due to the hardships of life, she needed to come out early to sing and earn money.
But Teresa Teng has loved singing since she was a child, so she gave up her studies, signed a contract with Taiwan's Universe Records at the age of 14, and shocked the Japanese music scene with a song "Airport" at the age of 20.
In 1975, Teresa signed to Hong Kong PolyGram Records and launched the "Island State Anthem" series in September. Songs such as "The Moon Represents My Heart", "Story of a Small Town", and "Sweet Honey" soon aroused the enthusiastic pursuit of young people, and Teresa Teng's patriotic feelings and healthy and sunny image also left a mark on the hearts of fans.
In 1987, Teresa Teresa quietly retired after releasing the Chinese album "I Only Care About You", and has since been reclusive, attending only some social events.
On May 8, 1995, Teresa Teng, who lives in seclusion in Chiang Mai, Thailand, was rushed to the hospital for an asthma attack, but due to traffic jams, the treatment time was delayed, and after nearly 45 minutes of rescue, she could not save her life at the age of 42.
6. Zhang Yusheng (June 7, 1966 – November 12, 1997, aged 31)
At the end of the 1980s, an inspirational pop song "My Future Is Not a Dream", which represented young people pursuing their dreams, suddenly became popular in the Central Plains. This song that sounds catchy, but is particularly difficult to sing, and if you are not careful, you will lose the tone, which is the heartfelt interpretation of "music magician" Zhang Yusheng.
Zhang Yusheng, due to heavy rain at birth, his father named him "Yusheng". Zhang Yusheng's father Zhang Jianmin is a member of the Kang band, and his mother Zhang Huimei is also good at singing and dancing, but Zhang Yusheng has not been keen on singing since he was a child, until his sister Zhang Yuxian, who has a good singing talent, drowned, in order to commemorate his sister, he decided to take the road of singing.
Zhang Yusheng is not a handsome idol star, he often wears large black-rimmed glasses, a shy smile on his face, and is full of sunshine like the boy next door.
And the eyes reveal a tough look, and you can see his persistence and seriousness at a glance. His basic skills are very solid, his voice is high-pitched and clear, and the high and low ranges are switched freely.
It is for this reason that he was able to perfectly perform "My Future Is Not a Dream". In 1992, the more difficult "Sea" came out, and let us see the ceiling of the pop high, this song has been heard countless times, sung in KTV, just do not dare to click "The Sea", because it is really difficult to control.
From his debut in 1988 to his death in 1997, Zhang Yusheng was actually only active in the entertainment circles of Hong Kong and Taiwan for less than 10 years, but he left us with an unforgettable shock.
He represents the ideals and pursuits of young people of that era, the cherishing and protection of beautiful things, and in today's words, he is the most positive and positive singer of the three views.
At 2:40 a.m. on October 20, 1997, Zhang Yusheng was in a car accident on the way back to his residence by car, and then was taken to the hospital by ambulance, and after 24 days and nights of rescue, he finally died of complicated aspiration pneumonia at the age of 31. To this day, Zhang Yusheng's songs are still eternal classics in the hearts of fans.
7. Zhang Guorong (September 12, 1956 – April 1, 2003, aged 46)
In Brother Jia's circle of friends, there is a post-90s girl who has to post a text commemorating Zhang Guorong on April 1 every year; and in 2003, when Zhang Guorong died, the sister was actually less than 10 years old. But from the works he left behind, perhaps she suddenly touched his soul and resonated, so she sighed at his purity and kindness, and read his inner thoughts.
Zhang Guorong debuted in 1977 and was able to sign to EMI Records after winning the runner-up of Li's TV Asian Song Contest. As mentioned above, the first few years were very difficult, and it wasn't until the 1983 song "The Wind Continues Blowing" that he gained the attention of his fans.
Since then, he has not only won the Golden Needle Award in the Hong Kong music scene, but also become the most influential male singer in Asia.
But Zhang Guorong's upper limit is not only here, he is also very persistent about acting. In 1977, he debuted in the movie, and thus got the nickname of "brother" (called "brother" in the film), and also suffered from the teasing of the martial artist for participating in the movie "Yang Guo and the Little Dragon Girl", and was knocked on the head and bled.
However, in 1986, he took out his savings to help Wu Yusen complete "The True Colors of Heroes", although he was only a supporting role in the film, but because of this film, he opened up the drama road, and his acting career has since gone on the right track. "Ghost of Qiannu", "The Legend of Ah Fei", "Overlord Farewell", Zhang Guorong's fans must be familiar with these classic movies.
After entering 2000, Zhang Guorong began to direct and shoot films, and prepared for his debut film "Stealing Hearts" for many years.
It is rumored that due to the sensitive subject matter, the production of this film was difficult, and Zhang Guorong suffered from depression. Finally, exhausted, on April 1, 2003, he ended his life in a cruel way.
8. Mei Yanfang (October 10, 1963 – December 30, 2003, aged 40)
On November 12 last year, the biographical film "Mui Yanfang", directed by veteran Hong Kong director Leung Lok Man, was released, and the 137-minute film grossed 113 million yuan on the mainland.
Subsequently, the 225-minute director's cut version of the film was edited into 5 episodes, and the online Disney+ also gained a good reputation.
Mei Yanfang's life is full of legends, she died at the age of 40, and the ups and downs of her life are difficult for the world to reach.
She is known as the "daughter of Hong Kong", but she had a bitter childhood. Although she is the youngest in the family, Mei Yanfang, who lost her father at a young age, needs to perform on stage at the age of 4 and a half to make a living, which has caused her stubborn personality that is different from ordinary people.
In 1982, at the 1st Hong Kong Rookie Singing Competition, 19-year-old Mui Yanfang won the championship with a song of Xu Xiaofeng's "Season of the Wind".
She soon signed a contract with Huaxing Records, released her debut album "Heart Debt", started a singing career, and began a life all the way from then on.
From the appearance point of view, Mei Yanfang has a large mouth and thick lips, and is not a sweet beauty. Therefore, since the 1985 album "Mei Yanfang", the stylist has specially designed a neutral image of short hair for her.
This avant-garde image won the hearts of fans, not only did the record sell well, but also the subsequent Bad Girls and also achieved great results.
In 1990, Mui Yanfang won the nickname of "Mei Thirty" for holding 30 consecutive solo concerts in Hong Kong, which was also the peak of her singing career.
At the same time, Mei Yanfang has also achieved brilliant results in movies, participating in more than 40 films, and 1987's "Rouge Buckle" made her a film queen.
In the entertainment industry, Mei Yanfang is recognized as a person who is proud and righteous, and her true temperament is still remembered by her peers.
Mei Yanfang has never been married in her life, but she has had 7 emotional experiences, and has had unforgettable contacts with Japan's "first scumbag" Makoto Kondo, Miao Qiaowei, Zou Shilong, Takahashi Masahiro, advertising model Liu Migao, Cambridge scholar Paul, and Zhao Wenzhuo.
On April 1, 2003, Zhang Guorong committed suicide, at this time Mei Yanfang, who was close to Zhang Guorong, was already suffering from cancer, and after learning the news, she was devastated and aggravated.
Mei Yanfang has always hoped to go to Beijing to hold concerts, and also joined Zhang Yimou's film "Ten Faces Ambush", but unfortunately she did not survive that winter and passed away on December 30.
Some people think that it is a pity that these people have not caught up with the dividend period of the Chinese mainland, but with their talents and the capital operation of the mainland, these geniuses do not know what height they will reach. But no matter what you say, you can't save the lost years and the footsteps of the god of death.
Bruce Lee believes that "death is only the end of one process, the beginning of another process", but many followers of Bruce Lee hope that Master Lee will live and we say that martial artists should be like water...
Some people say that people have to experience 3 deaths in their lifetime, first of all, your heart stops beating, which is death in the biological sense; then with your burial, your social status no longer exists; and finally, as the people who know you in this world forget you one by one, all the marks you have left in the world have disappeared.
It can only be said that they were so brilliant in front of them that the god of fate pressed the pause button at their highest peak.
These 8 stars are still remembered by the world, although their lives are short, they have reached a height that is difficult for ordinary stars to reach in their lifetime - and life is only once for everyone, should we also strive to leave a little more mark on the world.
(Rotten Tomatoes Movie Editorial Department: Blood Dan Heart)