Artists across the entertainment industry, including director Ang Lee (李安), yesterday paid tribute to Coco Lee (李玟), who died on Wednesday.
She was 48.
She will be dearly missed, Ang Lee said in a statement issued by his assistant.
Photo: AP
The Hong Kong-American singer-songwriter had hits including A Love Before Time (月光愛人) from Ang Lee’s Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (臥虎藏龍).
Coco Lee performed the song at the 73rd Academy Awards in 2001.
Ang Lee said he remembered her saying that as the first singer of Chinese descent taking to the Oscars stage, she planned to “sing with all her might.”
Taiwanese pop singer Jolin Tsai (蔡依林) on Wednesday on Facebook wrote “R.I.P., your bright smile will always be remembered.”
Singer Stella Chang (張清芳) said in a social media post that Coco Lee would “always be the best.”
Golden Bell Award-winning actor Wu Kang-ren (吳慷仁) wrote on Facebook that he listens to her songs when he feels down and thanked the singer for her incredible works.
Cyndi Wang (王心凌) and Little S (小S, also known as Dee Hsu, 徐熙娣), also paid tribute to the late singer.
Coco Lee died in hospital following a suicide attempt that had left her in a coma on Sunday, her sister Nancy Lee (李思林) said.
Coco Lee was diagnosed with depression several years ago and the condition had recently taken a turn for the worse, she said.
Hong Kong English-language newspaper the Standard reported that the singer died at Hong Kong’s Queen Mary Hospital.
The artist was born in 1975 in Hong Kong to a father of Chinese and Indonesian descent and a Hong Kong Cantonese mother.
Coco Lee’s father died before she was born, and her mother raised her and her two elder sisters in the territory before the family relocated to San Francisco when she was nine.
In 1993 she returned to Hong Kong to participate in the New Talent Singing Awards competition, where she placed second.
She was later offered a recording contract with Capital Artists.
One year later, she released her first Mandarin-language album in Taiwan, Love from Now On (愛就要趁現在), which quickly became a hit.
In 1998, she performed the song Reflection (自己) and provided the voice of the titular character in the Mandarin version of Disney’s Mulan (花木蘭).
Coco Lee also released several albums in English, including Coco’s Party and Just No Other Way.
As her popularity grew internationally, she was also invited to perform at the Michael Jackson and Friends charity concert.
Before her death, the singer had revealed that she was learning to walk again following an operation on her left leg earlier this year, disclosing that the issue had affected her throughout her life.
TRAFFIC SAFETY RULES: A positive result in a drug test would result in a two-year license suspension for the driver and vehicle, and a fine of up to NT$180,000 The Ministry of Transportation and Communications is to authorize police to conduct roadside saliva tests by the end of the year to deter people from driving while under the influence of narcotics, it said yesterday. The ministry last month unveiled a draft of amended regulations governing traffic safety rules and penalties, which included provisions empowering police to conduct mandatory saliva tests on drivers. While currently rules authorize police to use oral fluid testing kits for signs of drug use, they do not establish penalties for noncompliance or operating procedures for officers to follow, the ministry said. The proposed changes to the regulations require
Taipei, New Taipei City, Keelung and Taoyuan would issue a decision at 8pm on whether to cancel work and school tomorrow due to forecasted heavy rain, Keelung Mayor Hsieh Kuo-liang (謝國樑) said today. Hsieh told reporters that absent some pressing reason, the four northern cities would announce the decision jointly at 8pm. Keelung is expected to receive between 300mm and 490mm of rain in the period from 2pm today through 2pm tomorrow, Central Weather Administration data showed. Keelung City Government regulations stipulate that school and work can be canceled if rain totals in mountainous or low-elevation areas are forecast to exceed 350mm in
1.4nm WAFERS: While TSMC is gearing up to expand its overseas production, it would also continue to invest in Taiwan, company chairman and CEO C.C. Wei said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC) has applied for permission to construct a new plant in the Central Taiwan Science Park (中部科學園區), which it would use for the production of new high-speed wafers, the National Science and Technology Council said yesterday. The council, which supervises three major science parks in Taiwan, confirmed that the Central Taiwan Science Park Bureau had received an application on Friday from TSMC, the world’s largest contract chipmaker, to commence work on the new A14 fab. A14 technology, a 1.4 nanometer (nm) process, is designed to drive artificial intelligence transformation by enabling faster computing and greater power
China Airlines Ltd (CAL) yesterday morning joined SkyTeam’s Aviation Challenge for the fourth time, operating a demonstration flight for “net zero carbon emissions” from Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport to Bangkok. The flight used sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) at a ratio of up to 40 percent, the highest proportion CAL has achieved to date, the nation’s largest carrier said. Since April, SAF has become available to Taiwanese international carriers at Taipei International Airport (Songshan airport), Kaohsiung International Airport and Taoyuan airport. In previous challenges, CAL operated “net zero carbon emission flights” to Singapore and Japan. At a ceremony at Taoyuan airport, China Airlines chief sustainability
RSS