Raymond To Kwok-wai, born on 13 August 1946, is a Hong Kong playwright, screenwriter, director and producer. He began performing in radio drama at the age of six for Radio Television Hong Kong and RTV, earning the nickname child prodigy of broadcasting, and only started primary school at eight; he studied at two schools in Kowloon and finished secondary school in 1965, and as a boy appeared in two films. One of eleven siblings, his elder sister was the well-known radio announcer Mui Tsz (To Yin-chi) and his niece the radio host To Man-wai, an upbringing that brought him early contact with broadcasting and the performing arts. He graduated in geography from the University of Hong Kong in 1971 and from the Chinese University of Hong Kong's education faculty in 1982, then taught for about seventeen years in night schools and at a secondary school where he ran the drama club and taught, among others, Andy Lau. His short play The Ball won the Hong Kong Repertory Theatre's outstanding new script award in 1979; in 1992 he took an Asian Cultural Council fellowship to study in New York, and from 1993 worked full time in theatre as playwright-in-residence at the Hong Kong Repertory Theatre. In 1995 he co-founded the Spring-Time Stage company with Clifton Ko and Ko Tin-lung to promote stage culture. His best-known works include Hu Du Men, Love in a Fallen City, I Have a Date with Spring, Chinese Ghost Stories and The Mad Phoenix, his scripts often turning on local Hong Kong culture. I Have a Date with Spring won him the Hong Kong Film Award for best screenplay, while The Mad Phoenix brought him the same prize at the 17th Hong Kong Film Awards together with the Golden Horse Award for best adapted screenplay. In 2023 he received the Hong Kong Arts Development Council's Award for Outstanding Contribution in the Arts.
Through plays such as The Mad Phoenix and I Have a Date with Spring, To brought local Hong Kong subjects to both stage and screen, winning the Hong Kong Film Award for best screenplay twice; his long years of teaching and running a school drama club left behind scripts that became staples of the Hong Kong Repertory Theatre.
Achievements
- 1979 · His short play The Ball was selected as an outstanding new script by the Hong Kong Repertory Theatre
- 1993 · Became playwright-in-residence at the Hong Kong Repertory Theatre, working full time in drama
- 1995 · Co-founded the Spring-Time Stage production company with Clifton Ko and Ko Tin-lung
- 1998 · The Mad Phoenix won best screenplay at the 17th Hong Kong Film Awards