FILE: Singer-songwriter Coco Lee remembered at Hong Kong funeral

Record ID: 1736663

  • Title: FILE: Singer-songwriter Coco Lee remembered at Hong Kong funeral
  • Date: 5th July 2023
  • Summary: HONG KONG, CHINA (FILE - MARCH 21, 2005) (ORIGINALLY 4:3) (REUTERS) ***WARNING: CONTAINS FLASH PHOTOGRAPHY*** COCO LEE WAVING AT PHOTOGRAPHERS AS SHE ARRIVES FOR ENTERTAINMENT EXPO HONG KONG, CHINA (FILE - OCTOBER 28, 2011) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF LEE AND HUSBAND BRUCE ROCKOWITZ WALKING ON RED CARPET ON THE SECOND DAY OF THEIR WEDDING CELEBRATIONS LEE AND ROCKOWITZ SURROUNDED BY MEDIA LEE AND ROCKOWITZ ANSWERING TO REPORTERS' QUESTIONS / ROCKOWITZ SAYING (English) "I proposed a few years ago at a party in front of a lot of people. It was very embarrassing. And so she started to cry a little bit because she never thought I would ever ask her -- at least not in front of friends." TAIPEI, TAIWAN (FILE - DECEMBER 15, 2009) (ORIGINALLY 4:3) (REUTERS) LEE POSING ON STAGE AT LAUNCH OF HER WORLD TOUR LEE PLACING HER HAND ON A GLOBE THE GLOBE WITH WORDS READING: MARCH 27, 2010, COCO LEE EAST TO WEST WORLD TOUR CONCERT LEE STANDING IN FRONT OF A TOUR MAP LEE SPEAKING ON STAGE, SAYING (Mandarin) "This concert has many segments, and at the beginning, before I start to sing, before the first song, it feels like a party immediately. The atmosphere is really good and fun." LEE ON STAGE AT LAUNCH EVENT LOPBURI, THAILAND (FILE - JULY 11, 2004) (ORIGINALLY 4:3) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF LEE AND ACTOR ASHLEY JUDD VISITING THAI AIDS PATIENTS IN A BUDDHIST HOSPICE AS PART OF AN AIDS AWARENESS TOUR LEE AND JUDD PRAYING LEE SPEAKING WITH REPORTERS, SAYING (English) "We may not be able to save the people here today but knowing that we gave them a brief moment of happiness because we care and I wish more people could be like us and really care for them."
  • Embargoed: 19th July 2023 17:58
  • Keywords: Coco Lee coco lee death coco lee suicide singer coco lee
  • Location: VARIOUS
  • City: VARIOUS
  • Country: Various
  • Topics: Celebrities,Arts/Culture/Entertainment
  • Reuters ID: LVA003490605072023RP1
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: Family and friends of the late Hong Kong-born, American singer and song-writer Coco Lee paid their respects at a funeral in Hong Kong on Monday (July 31).
    Outside the funeral home in the eastern part of Hong Kong island, nearly one thousand fans, many dressed in black, queued in the summer heat to enter a funeral hall that was opened up to the public after a private service.
    Lee, who was 48-years old, died on Wednesday (July 5) following a suicide attempt that left her in a coma, Lee’s two sisters, Carol and Nancy Lee, said in a statement posted on Instagram and Facebook at the time.
    Lee died in Queen Mary Hospital in Hong Kong, where she had been living.
    "Although, Coco sought professional help and did her best to fight depression, sadly that demon inside of her took the better of her," the statement said.
    "On 2 July, she committed suicide at home and was sent to the hospital. Despite the best efforts of the hospital team to rescue and treat her from her coma, she finally passed away on 5 July, 2023," the statement said.
    Lee's career spanned around 30 years. Among her most notable performances were voicing of the female warrior Mulan in the Mandarin-language version of Disney’s “Mulan" and performing the Oscar-nominated song "A Love Before Time" from the film "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon."
    She was born in Hong Kong in 1975 and was the youngest of three children of a Hong Kong Cantonese mother and Malaysian father.
    Lee's father passed away before she was born, and by the age of 9 her mother had moved Lee and her sisters to the United States, to San Francisco.
    After graduating high school in 1992, she was offered a recording contract in Hong Kong with Capital Artists, eventually leading her to depart from her studies at the University of California, Irvine, to focus on her music career.
    In 1996, Lee signed with Sony Music Entertainment and her debut album, "Coco Lee," became the best-selling album of that year in Asia.
    It wasn't long before Lee gained fandoms in both Asia and the United States, which began her path to new collaborations and English-language songs.
    She recorded 18 studio albums and appeared in three films, most notably Lee Xin’s “Master of Everything” and “No Tobacco” by Stanley Kwan.
    In 2011, Lee married Bruce Rockowitz, a Canadian businessman who is the former CEO of the Hong Kong supply chain company Li & Fung. He survives her, as do her sisters and two stepdaughters.
    Funeral events for Lee will continue on Tuesday.
    (Production: Hanna Rantala, Violet Gonda)
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