A grayscale photo of Roman Tam, a young Chinese man with short styled black hair. She smiles at the camera, and wears a stylish outfit and shiny scarf.
"It's nice to be a star, isn't it? There are glittering lights, people are clapping for you, and you"re making a lot of money. Except you really have to know yourself. You have to be so good, that the mic explodes. Or, you have to be so beautiful that no one will notice that you can't sing. You really have to know yourself and what you can do, and you can't be lazy.”
– Roman Tam
Within the queer community, the connections between generations have always been strained. Outside of the queer community, there are many forces that are actively trying to inhibit the ability of queer people to connect, which are a large part if not all of this strain. The queer people that have been able to bridge these gaps, whether directly or indirectly, are massively important to the development of the queer community as a whole. There are costs that come with being able to defy the cultural norms and make those connections though, and those costs are clear when looking at the story of Roman Tam.
Born on the 12th of February 1945, in Guangxi China, Roman Tam had multiple jobs before coming into his own as a performer. It was in the 70s that Tam would find his stride and be able to make a name for himself, working on television themes that would launch his voice into homes all throughout Hong Kong. As he developed his career as a musician his flamboyance was an often noted quality, and though it is remembered fondly now, it did not make him popular at the time. Eventually becoming the Godfather of Cantopop, Tam was not immediately well-liked by the public, and his moves were often controversial, such as drag and nude photoshoots. It was only his charisma and his undeniable talent that kept him from being swept under the rug entirely, but there was one other factor that made a difference in his ability to stay in the spotlight. While he publicly played with gender expectations, he was not open about his sexuality, which was illegal and may have been a bridge too far for many of his fans. Even now in most memorials and obituaries, his sexuality and play with gender often go unmentioned. Instead, coded language is often used, words like flamboyant, and connections to other queer artists like Leslie Cheung. That is of course not to say that his connection to Leslie Cheung is not there; in many ways, he paved the way for Leslie Cheung to be much more open about his sexuality than Tam ever got the chance to be. In that vein, Tam would make a point to mentor and support up-and-coming artists, shaping the Cantopop music scene even long after his official retirement.
After thirty years working in the industry, Tam would retire, though he made it clear that he was still open to performing, but would only do so for worthy causes. In the later years of his life, he would spend much of his energy on performing for charities, something he would be remembered fondly for. His personal life would remain largely private though, there is little information to be found about his possible relationships and who he was off stage. In many ways, it seems to almost be the cost he paid for the popularity he enjoyed. Like many other queer stars, he was able to make his art publicly under the condition that it was only his art that would be public.
His queerness has been largely scrubbed from the larger narrative about his life. It is not quite hidden, but it is not often discussed. Instead, he has become almost a one-dimensional memory of a man. He is remembered for his incredible talent and how he chose to share it with the world, but little else is mentioned. As an intensely prolific artist, it is not certain that this is not the legacy that Tam would have wanted for himself, but there is something comforting about the fact that he would also be remembered as a man who opened the pathway for Leslie Cheung in the ways their paths overlapped. It is also worth noting that his disco hits are still listened to today and sung during the Hong Kong protests. He has not slipped out of the popular imagination since his death on the 18th of October 2002, and his legacy is wide in the Cantopop music scene.
REFERENCES AND FURTHER READING
Disclaimer: some of the sources may contain triggering material
Applauding Hong Kong Pop Legend: Roman Tam. (n.d.). 香港記憶 | Hong Kong Memory. Retrieved October 22, 2022, from https://www.hkmemory.hk/collections/Roman_Tam/about/index.html
Chan, L. (2008, April 18). Roman Tam: The Grand Godfather of Cantopop. Rhythm: The Online Magazine to HKVP Radio. https://web.archive.org/web/20080418041830/http://hkvpradio.com/rhythm/music/intimateportrait/20040608_romantam.php
Hong Kong pop icon Tam dies. (2002, October 19). http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/2342029.stm
Hong Kong Pop Star Roman Tam Dies. (2002, October 17). https://www.theintelligencer.com/news/article/Hong-Kong-Pop-Star-Roman-Tam-Dies-10576505.php
Hong Kong Pop’s Role Model: Roman Tam. (n.d.). Retrieved October 22, 2022, from https://www.hkmemory.hk/MHK/collections/Roman_Tam/role_model/index.html
Roman Tam. (2002, October 21). Variety. https://variety.com/2002/scene/people-news/roman-tam-1117874721/
The Stage and Roman Tam. (n.d.). Retrieved October 22, 2022, from https://www.hkmemory.hk/MHK/collections/Roman_Tam/stage/index.html