Chung King-fai

Chung King-fai SBS is a Hong Kong theatre director, actor, educator, television producer, screenwriter, programme host and filmmaker. He was the first to introduce theatre of the Absurd and Broadway musicals to Hong Kong audiences in Cantonese, playing a crucial role in popularising Western drama locally.^[1] He was also a prominent figure at the dawn of Hong Kong's television industry.

His translated productions in the 1960s, such as Death of a Salesman, Our Town, and A Hatful of Rain, galvanized the local theatre scene. And, he has since directed and performed in over a hundred stage productions, including The Zoo Story, M. Butterfly, West Side Story, Amadeus, and The Dresser. He collaborated in founding the Hong Kong Repertory Theatre in 1977, and later served as the founding Dean of Drama at the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts since 1985 until his retirement in 2001.

Chung is the honorary president of the Hong Kong Federation of Drama Societies, which he founded and served as chairman. He also holds an honorary fellowship at the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts and an honorary doctorate from Armstrong University of California.

Chung King-fai was born in Thailand,^[2] to a family of Chinese expatriates, with ancestral roots in Taishan, Guangdong.^[3] His great-grandfather was a dockyard merchant.^[3] His father graduated at Lingnan University, Guangzhou, and worked as an accounting clerk at Alexandra Building in Hong Kong.^[4] His mother, surnamed Cheung, was from Shanghai.^[4] While Chung was two months old, his family moved to Hong Kong and settled on Stone Nullah Lane in Wan Chai. He attended a rooftop kindergarten.^[2] At around the age of four, due to the Japanese occupation of Hong Kong, his family traveled by train to Shanghai, Nanjing, and Anhui to seek refuge.^[2] From 1942 to 1947, he lived in the Shanghai French Concession^[4] and completed primary four, attending the primary section of the McTyeire School, a school for affluent families.^[4]

In 1947, Chung returned to Hong Kong after the war. He was admitted directly into primary five at Pui Ching Middle School. While studying form six, he won the overall championship at the inter-school athletics meet.^[2] At the same time, he was actively involved with the school's drama society,^[2] serving two terms as its chairman. He won the Best Actor award at the Inter-School Dramatic Competition^[a] in 1953 for The Cheats of Scapin and again in December 1954 for The Lost Silk Hat.^[4] He had a strong interest in dance and drama,^[4][6] though his academic performance was average.^[2]

Between 1955 and 1957, as Hong Kong did not yet have a performing arts academy and others were unsupportive of a career in the arts, Chung enrolled in the Department of English at Chung Chi College, Chinese University of Hong Kong.^[7] In 1958, he went to the United States and entered Oklahoma Baptist University directly into the second semester of the third year in Speech and Drama, with a minor in English.^[8] Chung was later admitted to the Yale School of Drama for a three-year Master of Fine Arts programme,^[1] and graduated in 1962.^[8][2] He was the only Asian among more than 170 students.^[2]

Chung King-fai returned to Hong Kong in 1962 after completing his studies in the United States.^[9] Invited by Dr. Maurice J. Anderson, then founding vice-president of Hong Kong Baptist College, he served as an assistant lecturer in English Language and Literature for three years, during which he taught drama.^[10][11] It was the first time for drama courses to be taught in the tertiary education in Hong Kong.^[12] He also founded the College Dramatic Society there.^[12] In June 1964, he directed the society's production of Death of a Salesman, which was financially successful with nearly HK$40,000 in profit.^[13] While teaching at Hong Kong Baptist College, Chung also worked part-time as a scriptwriter and director at Rediffusion Television (now Asia Television), Hong Kong’s first cable television network.^[12] During his tenure there, he translated and adapted numerous Western plays for television production, including The Glass Menagerie.^[12]

In 1965, Chung was granted a World University Service Staff Training Fellowship to pursue further studies at New York University in Dramatic Arts for ten months.^[11][14] In the same year, senior TVB executive Steve Huang Shih-chiu sent him a formal invitation through Yao Ke^[b]. Chung continued teaching at Hong Kong Baptist College for another year and officially joined TVB in June 1967.^[8] He was appointed senior screenwriter and was promoted to general programme manager in October that year.^[8] In 1971, he proposed to the TVB senior management to establish a one-year artiste training program to address the shortage of performers, and served as an instructor for the first four intakes.^[8][15] Following Robert Chua's transfer in November 1973, Chung temporarily held both roles of general programme manager and production manager.^[16]

In August 1975, Rediffusion Television reached an agreement with Chung for him to join immediately after his contract ended with TVB.^[17][18] TVB reassigned him to assistant general manager.^[19] In February 1976, Chung was appointed director of Chinese programming at Rediffusion Television,^[20] also the role of assistant general manager from December 1976.^[21] In August 1977, he became deputy general manager.^[22] In February 1982, Chung initially planned to resign to pursue personal interests and to establish his own company, but was ultimately persuaded to stay and take over the responsibilities of Lee Sil-hong.^[23][24][25] He eventually stepped down on 1 March 1983.^[26]

Beginning in 1983, he took part in preparations for the establishment of the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts, the first tertiary institution of its kind in the territory. When the Academy officially opened in 1985, he became the founding Dean of the School of Drama. During his tenure, he developed a comprehensive degree programme covering acting, playwriting and directing, and incorporated a substantial body of Western drama into the curriculum as core material.^[12]

After retiring in 2001, Chung remained active in the performing arts, continuing to take on roles in both stage productions and television programmes. In 2005, Chung participated in a Hong Kong government-funded TV advertisement campaign, "Our Home, Our Country", to promote the Chinese national anthem by providing narration that explained its historical background.^[27]

In 2012, Chung King-fai authorised the publication of his biography "Self-disciplined, pragmatic, humble, harmonious - Chung King-fai"^[c] (ISBN 9789881588616). Written by Hong Tsz-ling, the book "documents the origins of Chung King-fai's inextricable bond to the art of drama from 1937 to the present."

After undergoing surgery for colorectal cancer in 2016, Chung gradually withdrew from public appearances following his work on Finding Her Voice to focus on recovery.^[28] In 2017, Chung stepped down as president of the Hong Kong Federation of Drama Societies after 33 years of service since its founding.^[29] In subsequent years, his health declined noticeably, with reduced mobility eventually needing the use of a wheelchair.^[28]

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