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Maggie Cheung arrives on a wintry morning attired in black lace jodhpurs, a black fur gilet and grey boots. With her well-defined cheekbones and beautiful features it’s easy to see why she’s known as the Chinese Garbo. However, unlike Garbo, she is warm and easy to talk to. Her extraordinary career (she has appeared in over 80 films in 20 years) and her unique perspective, the result of having grown up both in Europe and China, set the stage for a fascinating interview.
You moved to the UK (from Hong Kong) when you were eight. Was it difficult to adjust?
Yes! It was the early 70s and we were living in a small town in Kent. There were a few Indians and black kids at the school I went to, but I was the only Asian. So I had a mixed reception. Some girls stared at me and wanted to hold my hand, but mostly the boys and girls picked on me … “Ching chong China man!”
They were very cruel, and it made me feel fragile and vulnerable, as if I were just one against the whole school. I didn’t speak a word of English and the only thing I was good at was the multiplication tables. (laughs) Chinese are good at maths! I cried every day for the first year, but being so young I picked up English quickly, within about nine months, and then I started to have a proper life. But still on the defensive because at any minute a boy might run up to me and say something horrible. Racism can really destroy you! The experience of being bullied made me strong… tough even! Too strong! Ultimately I’m a soft person, but my background made me fight for what I want, for my rights.
Did you feel you fitted in better as a teenager?
No, I don’t think that feeling ever went away. I dyed my hair blonde and did things to try to conform, rather than to embrace my culture. That came later.
What was it like when you returned to Hong Kong?
I felt like an alien there too! My Cantonese wasn’t up to speed and people were suspicious of me having spent so much time in the West. There are a lot of contradictory views about the British there. They are admiring on one hand, suspicious on the other and at the same time they tend to look down on Mainland Chinese for being unsophisticated!
Anyway, I was 17 when I first went back to Hong Kong with my mum on holiday. I had a crush on a Chinese actor! (laughs) I thought if I stayed in Hong Kong for a couple of weeks I would meet him, but I didn’t! Those two weeks changed the course of my life anyway. Before leaving England I applied to the London School of Fashion because I wanted to be a make-up artist and hairdresser but they didn’t accept me so that settled my fate, because if I had gotten in, I would have stayed.
And you became a model and a beauty queen quite soon after arriving. Did you enjoy that experience?
I didn’t really take it very seriously, nor did I really know what I was doing, but I was happy to have a job! Then my agency signed me up for the Miss Hong Kong competition and I was runner-up. After that, because of having been seen on TV, the film offers started coming in and it all happened pretty quickly. The contest was in June, and I was in a film by October.
And how was that for you?
I always ask myself is it a better career path if you make loads of shit films first and then make good films? Or is it better if you have a great director first time up, like Zhang Ziyi, for instance? I acted in over 40 films before I landed a good part and no one made any demands on me. I only had to be cute! Well this is what happened to me, so I’m happy with it.
And I should be! I didn’t die from being in those films and earned quite a lot of money along the way. Then one day, (in the late 1980s) I got the opportunity to play a more serious role in a film called “As Tears Go By” directed by Wong Kar-Wai. It was his first film and it created an explosion on the cinema scene. What he did was very new, even compared to what was happening in European cinema at the time
What is he like to work with?
He is a talented person, not just as a director, but also as a producer. He made the connection with Chris Doyle, the cinematographer, and William Chang the art director and editor, and together the three of them decide on everything, the sets, the lighting, the wind on the curtains! Together they create that magic. Knowing who to collaborate with is an art in itself.
I understand he takes a long time to make a film.
In the Mood For Love took 15 months, and 2046 even longer.
That must be really difficult for the actors.
Yes and no. You get into it and suddenly it will stop for two months. But all the time you are growing into the role you are playing. It was only after nine months of shooting In the Mood for Love that I really felt at ease in that dress! (A very tight-fitting cheongsam). So I was thankful for that, though it kind of killed my personal life at the same time.
Another thing a lot of people don’t know about this film is that we shot a lot that didn’t make it into the film. In the original story, my character and Tony Leung’s had sex and lived together but that was all cut out. Wong Kar-Wai allows the story to develop day to day … there is no script at all. So a lot happens in the editing process.
I admire how you have remained independent and taken periodic breaks from acting to go off and pursue other interests, like writing music. Most people want to stay in their comfort zone, especially if they are doing as well as you were.
I don’t want to die having only been an actress. When it comes to writing music, I’m very slow, because I’m really teaching myself, though I send my stuff back and forth to several musicians in different counties to get their input. They’re like my doctors! After I’m familiar with a piece of music, I start to see the words in my mind’s eye, and can start to fit them into the melody, like in a jigsaw puzzle.
It’s fun! I’ve made about 16 complete pieces so far. Even if I don’t succeed in music, at least I know I have really gone into it in depth instead of just having been a tool for directors. Acting is a great thing but it’s not solid enough for me to feel that I have ever had any control over what I’ve done. That moment when the cameras are rolling is magical, but everything else is not! I think taking a break has helped me to become more open to life, less defensive.
Not many actresses can resist the call to appear in Hollywood movies such as X-Men and a Bond film, but you turned them down. Why?
I always follow my instincts and [those roles] just didn’t feel right to me. I’d go, “Is that part really interesting? Not really interesting! Would I be famous? Maybe, but do I want to be famous for that? No!” I don’t want to be seen as a Bond girl. I’d go, “Michelle Yeoh is perfect for the part, go with Michelle.” I’ve done that several times.
But you must have had a huge taste of fame in any case.
I’ve had the opportunity to live both lives, totally anonymous and totally famous. In Hong Kong it’s all dark glasses, and paparazzi following me, people camped outside my house. Then just a plane ride away, say in New York, most people don’t know me at all. So I understand what fame is and what it’s like to live without it. It’s about finding a balance. I try to choose my life. I feel I’m a better person than I was 20 years ago and not so concerned about what other people think of me. I try to stand up for people who might not be able to stand up for themselves. At the moment I live in Beijing quite a lot of the time because I have a kind of freedom there that I don’t have in Hong Kong.
What is the movie industry like in Beijing? Is there enough artistic freedom for filmmakers, or are there a lot of restrictions on what they can do?
In Beijing, as long as they don’t touch on anything political or overtly sexual, filmmakers are lot more daring than they are in Hong Kong where the industry is a lot more market driven. If it’s not going to make money, forget it! Whereas small independent film companies are still making lots of films in Beijing. As long as there are foreign film festivals they’ll be seen and that’s what matters most to these filmmakers.
And your life in Beijing?
I’m involved with two foundations associated with Audi and Olay whose products I also endorse. I went with the Audi charity, Driving Dreams, to Sichuan just after the earthquake in 2008 in order to draw attention, especially to the children, who lost their parents, helping them to rebuild their lives. That’s an ongoing project. With Olay I started a foundation to encourage Chinese girls to be creative. In Chinese society, if families don’t have the money it is always the boys who get educated.
Or if the family can afford to send their daughters to school they’re encouraged to go into finance or law purely to make money. We work with about 100 girls selected from schools all over the country to help them get scholarships, sometimes sending them to other countries to study, so they can realise their dreams. If we don’t do something quickly girls will still be treated unequally for the next two or three generations in Chinese society and I don’t want to see that.
Do you meditate?
No, but I’m influenced by Buddhist philosophy. I believe there will be another life after this and that your fate leads you, but your senses lead fate. I have a voice inside that directs me … no, I’m not mad, or psychic!
Is it intuition?
More like my conscience! I believe we all have it, but a lot of people ignore it and then they become pigs!
What inspires you at the moment?
Life itself! I’m interested in fashion, photography, interior design and music. And I love travelling. At the moment I’m moving my base in Europe from Paris to London. After living there for a few years, the French don’t surprise me any more. But England keeps surprising me and the English are so much easier to get along with!
Do you have a favourite fashion designer?
Hmmm … Ultimately my biggest respect goes to Alexander McQueen. His creativity goes beyond fashion, his shows are like theatre. I love wearing his clothes for the red carpet, but in my daily life I wear stuff from Topshop. Sometimes I’ll mix Topshop pieces with, say, a Givenchy jacket, but mostly I’m quite economical when it comes to buying clothes.
With a figure like yours, everything you wear looks like couture!
That’s the thing. Ultimately, it is about the figure. If you can maintain it you can save a lot of time, energy and money. I’m lucky. I can’t eat things like Mars bars, but if I eat three healthy meals a day and run around a lot I don’t have to think about counting calories.
Of all the roles you have played, which is closest to your heart?
I think the character in the film, Comrades, A Love Story. It wasn’t a very good film, but I felt so connected to that woman! She’s a struggler, a survivor. And the role I played in Hero too. Weird, because it’s a swords and horses type of film, but the stubbornness of that character really spoke to me.
As an actress you have a great ability to communicate mental suffering without spelling out your feelings.
That subtlety says a lot about Chinese people. Because of my experience growing up in England, I realise how different it is to come from a Chinese family. Our parents are often strict authority figures. We don’t speak freely with them or talk about what is going on emotionally. And this repression affects most other relationships too. And yet, even though I complain about it, there is something beautiful about not being aggressive about expressing one’s point of view.
Especially after Paris where everything is about “mon avis”! Subtlety is the Chinese beauty. Thank you for your interest in my work. I never imagined when we started making these films, that anyone in the West would ever see them so it’s very moving for me.
by Penelope Tree
Taken from the Glass archive – Issue One – Grace
All images: Photographer Feng Hai
Stylist: Lucia Liu
Hair: Ray Chan
Make-up: Janet Lee
Studio FSbrothers Studio, Beijing