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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
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“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.”
The late pop star died on July 5 aged 48 after a suicide attempt. Her performance of “A Love Before Time”, the theme song to Ang Lee’s Oscar-winning film Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, was one of the most celebrated moments in her 30-year career.
To this day, she remains the only Chinese singer to have performed at Hollywood’s most prestigious awards ceremony.
Lee enjoyed a career that spanned continents and generations. Besides topping Asian music charts and becoming a household name among Chinese millennials, she was also the voice behind Disney’s Mulan (1998), for which she sang the Mandarin version of the song “Reflection”. She made a name for herself in the US as well with Just No Other Way (1999), the first English-language R&B album recorded by a Chinese singer.
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.
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