Lee Siu-hung (28 November 1936 – 8 October 2026) was a Hong Kong television producer. Born into a performing family — his father Lee Sun-fung was a noted Cantonese-film director, his mother Lee Yuet-ching an actress and his wife Wong Sum-wai a TVB producer — he began as a child actor in Cantonese cinema in 1948 and appeared in his father's The Orphan (1960). From 1959 he turned to screenwriting, often writing while his father directed, on literary adaptations such as Su Xiaoxiao (1962) and The Last Emperor (1968). He joined RTV in 1973, producing his first serial, The Focus, and in July 1977 was promoted to producer alongside Mak Tong-hung, To Yung-hung and others. His serials The Chameleon, Gone with the Wind and Fatherland became landmarks of Hong Kong television; the long-form Fatherland, seventy-five episodes in three parts, rattled TVB's ratings in 1980 and forced it to pull a rival serial, earning him, Mak Tong-hung and To Yung-hung the tag of the Three Heroes of RTV. He rose to head of drama production at RTV in 1981, returned to the renamed ATV as controller of programme production from 1983 to 1989, and later headed TVB's television production training school before retiring in the 1990s. His dramas wove family ethics through the sweep of social change. He died of organ failure on 8 October 2026, aged eighty-nine.
In the years he led RTV's drama output, Lee Siu-hung broke TVB's habitual ratings dominance with long-form serials such as Fatherland and The Chameleon, helping to usher Hong Kong television into a fiercely competitive golden age and setting a model for the realist drama that followed.
Achievements
- 1977 · Was promoted to producer at RTV in the same round as Mak Tong-hung and To Yung-hung.
- 1980 · Produced the long-form serial Fatherland, which briefly rattled TVB's ratings.
- 1981 · Rose to head of drama production at RTV, overseeing all of its drama output.