How late singer Coco Lee crossed cultural divides to bring together Chinese communities around the world
- Lee had a ‘special place’ in the global Chinese community that was larger than her mainstream career success
- With her worldwide stardom and infectious personality, the Chinese-American singer became a cultural ambassador
“I am quite pleased with my performance and I hope I made the Chinese people proud,” a 26-year-old Coco Lee told reporters as she left the stage at the Academy Awards in 2001, wearing a crimson qipao made by Italian fashion designer Donatella Versace.
“Today we are representing Chinese people, so I wanted to wear something Chinese-inspired.”
To this day, she remains the only Chinese singer to have performed at Hollywood’s most prestigious awards ceremony.
The star had a “special place” in the Chinese diasporic community that was larger than her mainstream successes, according to interdisciplinary media academic Sheng Zou. It was something only people within the culture could understand.
“She represented a pan-Chinese identity which stretches beyond a single locality and across different Chinese-speaking communities around the world,” said Zou, who teaches at Baptist University.
“Her identity as part of the Chinese diaspora transcended the simplistic groupings of people from the mainland, Taiwan and Hong Kong.”
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Lee was born and raised in Hong Kong, before moving to San Francisco with her mother and two sisters at age 10. After high school, she returned for a popular singing competition and came first runner-up. Two years later, her move to Taiwan shot her to regional stardom. Over the last decade of her life, she was mainly active in mainland China.
But it was between the late 1990s and early 2000s that Lee enjoyed global success. That period epitomised a time when pop cultures from the East and the West happily mingled, with many Asian talents such as actress Michelle Yeoh and filmmaker Jackie Chan engaging audiences worldwide.
This was evident in the massive outpouring of tributes at the news of her death. Both fans and other celebrities shared fond memories of her, including Taiwanese singer Jolin Tsai, Cantopop icon Sammi Cheng and Chinese-American actor Daniel Wu.
“A lot of people transcended political differences and were united in commemorating her with vigils and other activities,” Zou said, pointing to a fan-organised flower-laying ceremony in Lee’s ancestral home of Wuhan, which was also his hometown. “We are all very proud of her,” he said.
Zou noted that Lee was never a political artist, and rarely, if ever, expressed her views about specific political topics. But, with a hybrid Chinese-American identity – and an infectious personality – she became something of a cultural ambassador.
“She participated in a lot of cultural activities organised, sponsored or initiated by the mainland government. There could have potentially been a role of cultural diplomacy that she was supporting either intentionally or unintentionally,” Zou said.
A recently resurfaced clip from 2001 showed Lee, alongside cultural figures including television presenter Dou Wentao and filmmaker Stephen Chow, jumping for joy in a press room at the news that Beijing would host the 2008 Olympic Games. Lee sported a T-shirt with a design that artfully combined the Chinese flag with a Sichuan opera mask.
According to Chinese-American singer-songwriter Li Ziming, who recently relocated to Shanghai after close to two decades in California, Lee’s albums, which he used to find in local libraries, provided a way for him to stay in touch with Chinese pop music after leaving Hunan at the age of 10.
“The soundtrack of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, featuring both the Chinese and English versions of ‘A Love Before Time’, played repeatedly on my Walkman. This experience heightened my awareness of and pride in my Chinese identity,” Li said.
“Coco’s embrace of her Chinese heritage has served as a significant source of encouragement for Chinese communities abroad.”
Her performance at the Oscars, where she proudly showcased her culture, was also seen as a “significant milestone” for Chinese-Americans, inspiring many to overcome racial barriers in their own lives, Li said.
“Coco seamlessly blended English with Chinese in her music … Her vocal technique is distinctly Western, yet the sweetness in her voice aligns with Chinese tastes, making her truly unique.”
Amanda Wu, a San Francisco-based digital designer, said Lee was her gateway to foreign contemporary music during her childhood in Nanjing, where she saw Lee in concert twice.
“It was through Coco that I came into contact with Western pop music as a teenager,” she said. “She evoked a Western flair through her music and style, which were particularly vibrant and fashionable during that era.”
A week after Lee’s death, Wu organised a remembrance gathering at Stanford University, attended by more than 100 fans, including students from the music school who performed a tribute.
“I have [attended fan meet-ups] before, when I was a teenager, and because of Coco I’ve met like-minded people and made many good friends … And today, many years later, because of her death, I once again felt the energy of everyone being united by her. I felt quite emotional.”
Wu said Lee touched more than the Chinese community, with many of her Asian friends, including one from Vietnam, also feeling the impact of her death.
“I have felt it personally, interacting with people around me, that Coco represented Asians on the international stage, which I think is very powerful.”
Wu said she hopes that a new generation of Chinese artists would continue Lee’s legacy as a cultural icon.
“Having been in the US for a long time, sometimes I question why other Asian cultures, like Korean and Japanese, are able to export their cultures so successfully,” she said. “I truly hope that there will be more people like Coco, who are able to take our music to the global stage, making more people aware of the Chinese music scene.”
Additional reporting by Yvonne Sun
