A Suspicious Death Changes Gay Hong Kong: Murder or Suicide? - Part 5

[PeterRS]

The Impact of MacLennan’s “Suicide”

The tragic circumstances of MacLennan’s death are unlikely ever to be known – or at least made public. Could it possibly have been suicide? Was he indeed murdered, as so many continue to believe? Several books and articles have been written on the subject. The latest “A Death in Hong Kong” by Nigel Collett was published early last year.  I have not read it. 

Based on its reviews, though, Collett places the suicide/murder in the context of the times, something not generally well known now and which I have also tried to explain above. As the South China Morning Post (Hong Kong’s primary daily English language newspaper) reviewer noted, many homosexual and bisexual men had arrived in the 1970s to take up official positions in Hong Kong where, despite the law, the city was more open to gay behaviour than Britain where it had actually been decriminalised. 

That relatively casual approach to homosexual affairs all changed after Richard Duffy was jailed and opened the Pandora’s Box which revealed a degree of sleaze and corruption that shocked many to their core. There can now be no doubt that that one act inevitably led, albeit indirectly, to much of what followed, including MacLennan’s death.

It is also unlikely we will ever understand how MacLennan’s death and the resultant utterly shambolic attempts by the RHKP and the government to keep it quiet had such an impact in changing what were allegedly entrenched beliefs about homosexual behaviour amongst the Chinese population in Hong Kong. I suspect the vast majority of the Chinese population had never given much thought to it. With most being an immigrant population fiercely determined to work hard and make lives better for their families, homosexual behaviour was well down their list of priorities.

After a thorough examination of facts, Collett concludes that MacLennan did commit suicide. Before his death last year, I spoke to Peter Moss who had been a friend for decades, a former Deputy Director in the Hong Kong Government Information Services Department for my first dozen years in Hong Kong. Peter was then living in retirement in Malaysia where he had served the colonial government prior to independence. I asked for his views. Collett had consulted him when drafting his book and Peter agreed with the suicide theory. I, though, have three reasons for doubting Collett’s conclusion. 

First, Collett did not arrive in Hong Kong until 1984. He therefore had no first-hand knowledge of the events he describes. I lived in Hong Kong for 25 years from 1975 and witnessed the events as reported at the time. Second Collett’s main occupation had been as an officer in charge of Gurkha regiments. In 1994, he formed a company Gurkha International Manpower Services Ltd. He has written only two books but contributes to a number of publications. Through his company he had links to law enforcement in colonial Hong Kong. There is therefore the possibility, however remote, that his views might have been swayed in favour of the RHKP.

Third, in 2014 he wrote Firelight of a Different Colour, a biography of the extraordinarily talented gay Hong Kong superstar actor and singer, Leslie Cheung Kwok-wing, who committed suicide in 2003 aged 46. I worked with Leslie on two occasions, I had known his manager, Florence Chan, for many years, and I knew in detail the background to an offer made to him by the London impresario Sir Cameron Mackintosh which could have led to his appearance in Phantom of the Opera on Broadway. I knew because I was in Leslie’s dressing room at the Hong Kong Coliseum when the offer was made by Sir Cameron’s Managing Director, Martin McCallum! 

I did not know Leslie well but admired him immensely both for his amazing talent and his total modesty. InFirelight Collett relies on a vast amount of speculation and few specific sources – understandable, since Leslie’s family did not want the book written. The Phantom episode Collett describes is totally wrong. When one book gets this and other alleged “facts” wrong, I hear alarm bells when another book allegedly based on a reconstruction of “facts” appears by the same author.

We all love conspiracy theories and most of us believe – or want to believe – that we know better than official versions. I believe I know who killed John F. Kennedy and how, based on facts that keep emerging as time goes on, it is not what the Earl Warren Commission wanted us to believe. But I will never know if my theory is correct. Equally I believe I know that John MacLennan could not have committed suicide – not given the background of the times and by shooting himself five times in the abdomen. That to me defies credibility. As he had told Elsie Elliott, MacLennan still was in possession of a great deal of information about the homosexual activities of many people in high places. Most, if not all, of these prominent individuals would not wish that information to become public. 

I accept that MacLennan came from a small town in the north of Scotland where his life would have been massively different from that he enjoyed amidst the bright lights and temptations of a teeming international city like Hong Kong. It was known he had a girlfriend in Scotland whom he planned to marry and that he had fooled around with at least three mistresses on various occasions during his time in Hong Kong. Yet, I also accept it was perfectly possible that he was in some way enticed to try sex with one or more male prostitutes. I do not believe for a moment that makes anyone a homosexual. It may at best have illustrated a tendency towards his being bisexual. Yet, given the determination of his superiors to “set up him”, even that must surely be open to more than considerable doubt. 

Would the very huge psychological pressure he was under, given the detailed knowledge he had obtained whilst working for Special Branch, the knowledge that Brooks and Quinn were out to “get him” and the further knowledge that the planting of evidence by the RHKP was well-known within the Force – would that have been enough to unhinge his mind and pressure him towards suicide? The resultant publicity of a trial would have unquestionably brought unbelievable shame to his family in Scotland. He must also have realised that the vague chance of an acquittal could not undo the public damage to his reputation and the almost certainty of his never being able to work in any police force again. There can be no doubt that he would not on that evening have been capable of particularly rational thinking.

But does all that explain his actions on the night of his death? Can it possibly explain the reason for attempting to commit suicide with five bullets to his abdomen with the gun pointed in an unnatural direction for firing? If indeed it was a suicide, why were so many outright and provable lies told in the subsequent investigations? Why did the Governor through his aides and the Attorney General do all in their power to keep the case under wraps? Taken all together, it indicates at least to me that there was much more to the MacLennan affair than we know even today.

And so I and the few friends I still have who also lived in Hong Kong at the time of MacLennan’s death refuse to believe that it was suicide. To us it was a botched murder to cover up a great deal of sleaze and sludge in a filthy little swamp. I wish I could prove it!

All I know is that that death of one very insignificant member of the police force contributed in no small way to a major ‘clean up’ of the forces of law and order in Hong Kong. At the start of the millennium an opinion poll was conducted amongst Hong Kong people to name the most significant events in 150 years of Hong Kong history The establishment of the ICAC was voted as the sixth most important. 

Equally, MacLennan’s death was eventually to result in Hong Kong becoming a much more tolerant, open and free society for gay men and women. If only for these two reasons, Inspector John MacLennan should always be remembered.

 

Sources

1. https://unhabitat.org/wp-content/uploads/2008/07/GRHS.2007.CaseStudy.Crime_.HongKong.pdf

2. Hong Kong welcomed the ICAC. In 1999 the people of Hong Kong were polled about the most important events since the founding of Hong Kong. The establishment of the ICAC was voted as #6

3. https://www.thecrimevault.com/exclusives/what-was-it-like-as-a-brit-in-the-royal-hong-kong-police/

4. In an article about MacLennan’s death, the following appeared in Scotland’s National newspaper on 16 January 2018.

Writing after the inquest in 1981 [see below], the investigative journalist Duncan Campbell, who inquired into the death of the Scot, wrote: 

“MacLennan’s death is a savage reminder of the style of operation of the notoriously corrupt Hong Kong police. At the centre of the affair is a police campaign against homosexuality: MacLennan was about to be arrested, it was said, by a Special Investigation Unit which hunted down homosexuals. But the police campaign is more a means of stabilizing police power in the colony, than an actual piece of law enforcement. 

“In this enterprise, the police have collaborated with the Triad, criminal syndicates procuring youths, and have thus ensnared several government officials in compromising circumstances. 

“The police venture had two objectives: first to pursue minor offenders against Hong Kong’s repressive sexual laws; and second to render more highly placed officials liable to pressure – from the police. Those who complied were secure. One person who did not give in to this racket was an English lawyer Howard Lindsay. As a result he was put on trial for sexual offenses last year”

5. HC Deb 11 March 1983

6. The Hong Kong government had established the Urban Council in 1883. Its functions were primarily to look after local issues like waste collection and hawker control. Eventually its portfolio would include arts and entertainment facilities. Council members were appointed by the government. In 1952, two seats were offered for election and by 1956 the number increased to half, although there were major restrictions re those entitled to vote. The Council became an autonomous body in 1973. A social activist who had arrived from England as a missionary in the early 1950s, Elsie Elliott (later Elsie Tu) had been an elected member since 1963. She was a passionate advocate for the ordinary men and women of Hong Kong. She was a thorn in the side of authority but loved by most Hong Kong people.

7. Ken Bridgewater “Open Verdict: A Hong Kong Story” 

8. Paragraph 12.22 on page 135

[forrestreid]

An interesting series of posts

[hojacat]

Thanks for this article @PeterRS. It sheds light into a not-so-distant period but that feels light-years from the Hong Kong I've known (just returned from it two weeks ago).

Thanks also for mentioning Leslie Cheung. This year runs the 20th anniversary of his tragic death. I'm planning to watch Happy Together one more time on my long-haul flight this week.

Just a question, wouldn't have been better to make 5 posts under the same topic, instead of 5 separate ones? In time might get difficult find the different parts.

[PeterRS]

2 hours ago, hojacat said:

Thanks also for mentioning Leslie Cheung. This year runs the 20th anniversary of his tragic death. I'm planning to watch Happy Together one more time on my long-haul flight this week.

Just a question, wouldn't have been better to make 5 posts under the same topic, instead of 5 separate ones? In time might get difficult find the different parts.

My concern was that putting the entire article under one thread would just make it far too long for the average reader. By listing the Part numbers, I think it becomes clear that it is a series of posts and readers can dip in and out if they wish. With few posts under this section of the Board, I am not concerned about readers losing the plot, as it were!

Please also remember Leslie's first major international movie Farewell My Concubine which won the Palme d'Or at the 1993 Cannes Film Festival. In 2005 TIME magazine listed it as one of the Best Movies of All Time. Leslie is marvellous and the tragic ending often brings tears.

Happy Together is a totally different type of movie. Two lovers travel to the Iguazu Falls in Argentina (only because in their tiny Hong Kong apartment they had a lampshade with a picture of the Falls) in an attempt to save their relationship. It is dramatic, gritty, violent and frequently moving. It was nominated for the Palme d'Or and  its director Wong Kai-wai won Best Director at the 1997 Cannes Festival. 

Leslie's death was a complete tragedy. On the surface he had it all. A superb actor and singer, he once played 33 concerts on consecutive nights in the 10,000 seat Hong Kong Coliseum. Jean-Paul Gaultier designed some of the costumes for his last ever mega-concert series. It was at these concerts that he announced he was gay and had a long term partner. That relationship was by all accounts very important to him. What hardly anyone knew was that he suffered from and was being treated for severe depression. That one with so much talent and so many gifts should elect to take his own life shocked much of the world. In a 2010 CNN poll Leslie was voted the Third Most Iconic Musician of all Time after Michael Jackson and The Beatles.

In a short suicide note he thanked his family, his lover and his psychiatrist. He added, “I can’t stand it anymore . . . In my life I have done nothing bad. Why does it have to be like this?” Had he lived he would be 66 this year.

On a tangent, some time ago I found this photo on the internet. Can you imagine three cuter young Hong Kong guys? Actors Danny Chan, Leslie Cheung and Paul Chung in the 1981 Hong Kong movie On Trial. Danny and Leslie were closet gays at the time. All died tragically young. Danny of a drug overdose aged 35. Paul like Leslie committed suicide aged 30.

[hojacat]

2 hours ago, PeterRS said:

Please also remember Leslie's first major international movie Farewell My Concubine which won the Palme d'Or at the 1993 Cannes Film Festival. In 2005 TIME magazine listed it as one of the Best Movies of All Time. Leslie is marvellous and the tragic ending often brings tears.

Well, of course but that movie is so famous that I don't think it needs an introduction. I saw it at a very young age when I had no idea who Leslie Chung. I think for a very large part of Western audiences Farewell, My Concubine is the one and only exposure they have to Leslie Chung's talent. Happy Together is little known outside cinephiles circles as most people only know from its director, Wong Kar Wai, his next movie after this  In the Mood for Love.

 

2 hours ago, PeterRS said:

On a tangent, some time ago I found this photo on the internet. Can you imagine three cuter young Hong Kong guys? Actors Danny Chan, Leslie Cheung and Paul Chung in the 1981 Hong Kong movie On Trial. Danny and Leslie were closet gays at the time. All died tragically young. Danny of a drug overdose aged 35. Paul like Leslie committed suicide aged 30.

They were in their mid-20s but it looks more like a pic of three guys in junior year in high school. After my trip to HK last month, I'm convinced that Hong Kongese have the slimiest and the most petite body shape among the big cities in Greater China, much more so than in Taiwan where lots of guys are kinda obsessed with putting on muscles.

I made the same remark to this slim twink I met and hanged out with while in HK. His reply: "Oh we also love muscles, but I guess we work more than Taiwanese, so don't have enough time to hit the gym".  It made me chuckle.

[PeterRS]

3 hours ago, hojacat said:

They were in their mid-20s but it looks more like a pic of three guys in junior year in high school.

I just discovered it is indeed a pic from a movie about the boys being at school - although nearer final year. The three starred in two 'school' movies - Encore and On Trial. On Trial is avaiable on youtube - but it's a typical low budget early 1980s Hong Kong film. The nice thing is that the long trousers the boys wear are all quite tight fitting over their cute asses! Also there is a scene when they are playing some sort of game with very short white shorts!

Danny Chan had become famous as an actor and singer a few years before Leslie. Indeed he was probably Hong Kong's first pop idol. I liked his voice a lot and thought it was marginally better than Leslie's singing voice. There is one gentle ballad number he sings in the film - it starts at 1:24'25". He also sings the song during the closing credits.

He liked fit gay young westerners and always had a group around him. Unfortunately he started on drugs quite early. In his last years he used to frequent a little known mostly gay club on Ice House Street just down from the Foreign Correspondents' Club. It was there one evening that he collapsed and fell into a coma presumed to be a result of combining narcotics with alcohol. His parents kept him alive for 17 months before finally allowing him to die. 

I frankly find little difference between the physiques of Hong Kong and Taiwanese young guys. I guess it's where you go and where you tend to see them. Certainly both can be incredibly attractive and handsome!