The funeral of Hong Kong singer Coco Lee took place on Jul 31 and Aug 1 and saw hundreds of fans turning up outside Hong Kong Funeral Home to pay their final respects to Lee who died on Jul 5 after her suicide attempt a few days prior.
Among the pallbearers for the funeral were singer Jenny Tseng, lyricist Yao Chien and co-president of Warner Music Asia Jonathan Serbin.
Lee’s funeral, however, did not go without incident. During Lee’s memorial service on Jul 31 (which was livestreamed), her older sisters Nancy Lee and Carol Lee broke down and yelled: “They took my sister away! They caused my sister to die!”
The sisters did not name the person they were referring to.
Fans of Coco Lee, however, have been directing a lot of their anger towards Bruce Rockowitz, Lee’s estranged husband. Lee and Rockowitz, 64, had reportedly been separated for over two years – allegedly due to his infidelity. The couple got married in 2011.
The entrepreneur was not present at Lee’s funeral. He did, however, attend the late singer’s cremation service along with two daughters from a previous marriage. He faced insults from fans including yells of “You killer”, “Liar” and “You heartless man”. One woman even stood in the way of his vehicle to prevent Rockowitz from leaving.
Speaking to the South China Morning Post on Aug 1, Rockowitz said: “I have 100 per cent nothing to do with her death. I don’t know what was said to me during the cremation because I don’t know Chinese very well. That was not very nice.”
Coco Lee was said to have been battling depression during her final years. She was the first Chinese-American to perform at the Oscars, singing A Love Before Time from Ang Lee’s Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. She was also the voice of the titular heroine in the Mandarin version of Disney’s Mulan.
