Chan Chor-wai, born Chan Yuk-jan in Hong Kong in 1943 to a Puning family from Guangdong, was raised in the countryside during the war and returned to Hong Kong afterwards. In 1953 she joined the Sun Tin Choi Chaozhou Opera Troupe, studying under Cheung Muk-tsun alongside Cheng Chor-heung and specialising in the xiaosheng (young male) role; while training she also performed in shadow-puppet theatre. In 1956, aged only thirteen, she made her formal stage debut in The Male and Female Swords. She went on to dub Chaozhou songs for Cantonese stars such as Yam Kim-fai and Law Kim-long. In 1960 she appeared in her first film, Stepmother (1960), with the Sun Tin Choi troupe, taking the male lead, and had a cameo as a fisher girl in The Innocent (1960). Her third film, The Window-sweeping Meeting (1961), opposite the dan Fong Hau-yuk, won praise. Working for the Tuoying and Man Sing companies, she was often paired with the Thai-based dan Tsang Shan-feng in hits such as The Loyal Maiden (also known as The Song of the Farewell Pavilion, 1961), The Phoenix Hairpin (1961), The Jade Hairpin (1962) and The Story of Liu Zhang (1962), and with Fong Hau-yuk in The Red-Maned Steed (1963) and Meng Lijun (1963). When the Singapore-based Kong Ngee organisation formed the Chaoyi company in 1963 to make Chaozhou films, she partnered the former Thai dan Chan Lai-lai in The Peony Pavilion (1963), The Red Plum Blossom (1963), Meeting on the Wall (1964) and The Thorn Hairpin (1964), and with Mui Ching made Lu Mengzheng (1963), one of her signature roles. Under contract to Chaoyi from February 1964, she made her last Chaozhou pictures, The Debate at the Palace (1966) and the two-part Tsui Ming-fung (1968). In just a few years she starred in more than fifty Chaozhou-dialect films. She first toured Thailand with Sun Tin Choi in 1966, and for several years after that performed across Southeast Asia, earning the title 'King of Male Roles' in Teochew opera. Leaving the stage in the 1970s to raise her family, she returned in 1980 and in 1990 formed the Hong Kong Chan Chor-wai Chaozhou Opera Troupe, performing widely and collaborating with mainland troupes. Still devoted to the stage, she sang at the fourth Chaozhou Opera Festival in Shantou in September 2012 and died on 23 October that year.
As a woman playing the young male lead, Chan Chor-wai earned the title 'King of Male Roles'; her more than fifty Chaozhou-dialect films carried the Teochew opera xiaosheng into the Singapore, Malayan and Thai markets. By founding the Hong Kong Chan Chor-wai Chaozhou Opera Troupe in 1990 and working with mainland companies, she sustained Teochew opera on Hong Kong stages.
Achievements
- 1956 · Made her formal stage debut at the age of thirteen in The Male and Female Swords.
- 1960 · Appeared in her first film, Stepmother, with the Sun Tin Choi troupe, taking the male lead.
- 1990 · Formed the Hong Kong Chan Chor-wai Chaozhou Opera Troupe, performing widely and collaborating with mainland troupes.