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Last month, the 61-year-old veteran Hong Kong star Maggie Cheung was unusually active, especially participating in the 30th anniversary concert of "The Legend of White Snake". She remained elegant and in excellent shape during the event.

In fact, since last year, Maggie Cheung has been showing signs of making a comeback. She has starred in movies one after another, and the variety show "Infinite Beyond Class" she participated in was also a hit. Her performance in the show has won praise again and again.

But in fact, when it comes to the peak of his acting career, we have to go back more than 30 years.

At that time, Maggie Cheung was a bright and beautiful girl who even the superstar Leslie Cheung had to praise as a "genius". Later, she opened up the domestic entertainment market by starring in "Legend of the New White Snake" dressed as a man.

But few people know that although Maggie Cheung had such a successful career, she had a troubled marriage - her husband, Chen Guoxi, who came from a wealthy family, cheated on her several times after marriage, which made her lose face, but Maggie Cheung has not divorced her to this day.

Especially now that she is 61 years old, she has chosen to make a comeback. What kind of bitterness is behind this?

1. The road to superstardom for a “genius girl”

In 1963, Maggie Cheung was born into a poor family in Hong Kong. Her original name was Li Sisi. Because her parents were a reconstituted family, she had a half-brother and a biological sister.

Their childhood was not happy. In addition to family reasons, their parents favored boys over girls and sent them to live with relatives since they were young. They were what we now call left-behind children.

Because she was living under someone else's roof, Maggie Cheung learned to read people's expressions from a young age, and her parents only visited her once or twice a year, and later they simply stopped going.

In her impression, the uncles and aunts who buy groceries downstairs are closer to her than her parents - perhaps it is precisely because of the lack of love in her childhood that she seems to have no bottom line in her choice of marriage in the future.

Due to her family circumstances, Maggie Cheung barely finished junior high school and then began to work part-time while studying.

Because she had grown to 1.72 meters at the age of 17, she became a print model.

In 1980, she failed to be admitted to university. When she learned that a brand was holding an audition for a female lead in its advertisement, she signed up. It was because of this action that she met the love of her life, Chen Guoxi.

The man is 9 years older than her and was born into a wealthy family. His family influence extends to various industries including film and television, luxury goods, etc.

However, since he had artistic talent since childhood, he entered the entertainment industry after returning from studying abroad and was working as an assistant to an advertising director.

Chen Guoxi noticed Maggie Cheung in the crowd at first sight and she was immediately chosen.

But as she had no acting experience, her first shoot was not smooth, but Maggie Cheung worked hard without complaint.

Chen Guoxi watched the whole process and helped a lot.

After finishing work, Ye Tong suddenly received a text message invitation from the man:

"You've been filming so many times, I think I should pay you some more money. Then can we go have tea together?"

She was only 17 years old at the time, and she thought that since she had accepted the job, she had to do it well, so she happily accepted the appointment. Later, the two had many contacts because of work, and the man also began to pursue her openly.

After a few interactions, they established a romantic relationship, which was also Maggie Cheung's first love.

Because of his powerful family influence, Chen Guoxi had a huge say in the selection of actors, and therefore began to promote his girlfriend.

In 1982, Maggie Cheung starred in her first movie "Youth in Flame", in which the male lead was the equally fledgling Leslie Cheung.

Perhaps it was a gift from God, her expression was immature but natural, and she was full of spirit, and was immediately nominated for the Best Newcomer at the Academy Awards that year.

After meeting her, director Patrick Tam believed that she would be able to maintain her childlike state in the movies, so he gave her a stage name inspired by "evergreen leaves and childlike innocence": Cecilia Yip.

Long after, the successful "brother" Leslie Cheung talked about her in a program and praised her:

"She had just debuted, but she was so free and easy. She was so good at delivering dialogues and making facial expressions. Some people are born to do this. I think this girl is a genius."

Indeed, the following year after her debut as an actress, Maggie Cheung won the Best Actress Award at the Academy Awards for starring in a low-budget comedy film "Seven Days of Love" with Kenny Bee.

Perhaps it was because she later dressed as a man to perform in "The Legend of the New White Snake" that the audience who got to know her later always thought that she had a kind of "masculinity".

But in fact, in her early years, Maggie Cheung was charming and seductive, and she had no idol baggage at all. She was very relaxed in her performance, which is also her unique charm as an actor.

2. The first generation of professional hermaphrodites

After that, Maggie Cheung starred in films such as "The Wrong Kind of Person", "Waiting for Dawn", and "Half Love", and she could be said to be one of the most popular actresses at the time.

But she was very clear-headed when she was young. Although she received many acting offers, she never overlapped her roles. The reason was simple and clear:

"It is much better to do one thing to the best of your ability than to do a lot of things and accomplish nothing, so I would rather use the time it takes to do one movie well than to do several. As for the sequel, the predecessors have already played the characters very well, so there is no need for me to overturn it."

During this period, the relationship between Maggie Cheung and her boyfriend, Alex Fong, became increasingly stable, and they were ready to get married.

It is said that at first, due to her family background, she was not liked by Chen's mother, so the two of them were able to get married only after 8 years of dating.

In 1988, 26-year-old Maggie Cheung married Michael Chan in romantic Paris.

To outsiders, they were a well-matched couple, a talented man and a beautiful woman, a match made in heaven.

But in fact, this marriage became a lifelong confinement for Maggie Cheung.

After marriage, she faded out of the screen for two years until she made a comeback in 1990 by starring in the movie "Swordsman".

Then she won the Best Supporting Actress Award at the Academy Awards for her outstanding performance in the movie "Over the Sunset".

In addition to recognition for her acting skills, Maggie Cheung's appearance has also been recognized by everyone.

Although Cai Lan once said to her in person: "No matter how you look at her, she is not a very beautiful woman", the amazing thing is that when she stands in front of the stunning beauties Zhou Huimin and Guan Zhilin, she is not inferior to them, and even more distinctive.

Among the many beauties, Maggie Cheung and Cherie Chung even attracted a lot of CP fans and even caused rumors of homosexuality.

The two met in 1988 while working together on "Love Riddle", and soon found that they had hit it off very well and felt they had met each other too late, and became good friends.

At one point, the two were often photographed drinking tea and shopping together, and Maggie Cheung would sometimes even stay overnight at the other's home, so the paparazzi said that they fell in love with each other.

In the same year, she married her boyfriend of eight years.

There are also rumors that Chen Guoxi may have realized that his girlfriend was becoming more and more popular, so he married her.

In 1991, Maggie Cheung, who had just made a comeback, won the Best Actress Award at the Academy Awards for her role in the film "Marriage Without Talk" starring her and Tony Leung Ka Fai.

But she was not satisfied with this, so she gave up her career in Hong Kong and went to Taiwan to act in TV dramas.

This is because he wanted to break through his own limitations, so he took on the role of Xu Xian, the male lead in "The Legend of the New White Snake".

It can be said that the play has set many precedents, the most important of which is women dressing as men.

But when the drama first aired, Maggie Cheung also endured a lot of controversy. Some people thought that the Xu Xian she played was too feminine and lacked masculinity.

However, soon after this work was broadcast, it became popular all over the country and even set off a craze. It is no exaggeration to say that it is a phenomenal work.

Even today, many years later, there are still netizens who leave messages saying that they were deceived by Xu Xian:

"When I was little, I couldn't tell that I was a girl, which indirectly led to my liking for effeminate boys..."

But the sudden popularity also has side effects, because the male image she played was so deeply rooted in people's hearts that many of Maggie Cheung's subsequent works were filtered through the "Xuexian" filter.

For example, in 1994, she played Zhao Min in the TV series "The Heaven Sword and Dragon Saber", but netizens kept commenting on her screen: "I can't relate to her at all. Isn't she still Xu Xian?"

And because he and Zhao Yazhi were famous as a couple at the time, they later collaborated on film and television works such as "Love in Troubled Times", "The Flower of the Number One Scholar" and "Flowers of Sin".

Perhaps because the two of them have been working together more often, rumors of their affair began to circulate.

Maggie Cheung was very troubled by this and publicly denied the rumor, saying that she was a married woman and even said:

"I would rather they spread rumors about my (family discord) than rumors of scandals."

She didn't expect at the time that her words would come true.

3.40 years of marriage and repeated betrayal

At the peak of her career, Maggie Cheung chose to retire at the height of her career. After starring in "Peace Hotel" with Chow Yun-fat, she gradually faded out and returned to her family.

In fact, she was already over 30 years old at that time, so her mother-in-law could not help but urge her to give birth.

After retiring from the film and television industry, Maggie Cheung also encountered the best opportunity to have a child.

But fate played a trick on him. During this period, Chen Guoxi was affected by the financial crisis, which led to a significant drop in his net worth and he even had to bear huge debts.

Maggie Cheung had to give up having children temporarily and work hard with her husband.

But what she didn't expect was that in 2002, she would hear the news that her husband passionately kissed actress Anya at the door of the hotel.

In response, Maggie Cheung strongly refuted the rumor: "My husband and I have a deep relationship and I absolutely trust him."

But before he could finish his words, the following year, the man was photographed kissing Anita Mui's manager Wang Huimin in public. After the incident, she still denied it with a smile: "They are just brother and sister."

On the other hand, facing the interview of the reporter, Maggie Cheung said that she no longer wanted to have children, the reason was:

"I don't have the ability to take care of a child, and there's no need to continue my genes."

But although her love for her husband was apparently as strong as gold, Chen Guoxi's scandals never stopped despite his wife's support.

In 2010, he was photographed by the media kissing an amateur woman in a shopping mall;

The following year, he was spotted buying furniture and a luxury house with his confidante;

In 2012, he was caught dating a long-haired beauty in a car...

Maggie Cheung responded with a joke:

"I think it must be the large vase of peach blossoms that I planted at home during that period, which was caused by the peach blossoms."

However, the Hong Kong media, which is always venomous, did not intend to let her go and directly published: "Ye Tong is playing ostrich and turning a blind eye!"

Indeed, she, who seems independent, aloof, and well-fed, always seems to be so love-brained when facing what she can call a "bad" marriage.

According to rumors, she even publicly stated: "If the other person is willing to lie to you, it means he is still concerned about you, then it is worth it for you to continue to work on it."

In this regard, fans can only be angry at their lack of resistance.

Unexpectedly, in 2013, Maggie Cheung and her husband held a silver wedding ceremony, and she also invited many friends from the circle to attend.

Facing Chen Guoxi, who frequently falls into the vortex of cheating, she confessed affectionately: "Putting on the wedding dress is like going back 25 years."

After that, when the man was involved in another scandal, Maggie Cheung stopped pretending and responded directly:

"My husband must be bored when he's alone, so I'm grateful for their company."

This sentence shocked the outside world and finally made the audience understand her way of getting along with her husband and wife:

As long as you acknowledge it, everything else is nothing.

Today, 61-year-old Maggie Cheung is still Mrs. Chen in name only. Although they have no children, the two have been supporting each other for 42 years, which can be regarded as a "legend".

Do you think Maggie Cheung is a clear-headed person or is she just having to settle for the second best option?