Chan Wing-ming was a native of Chao'an, Guangdong, born in Singapore on 13 April 1927 and brought back to Chao'an at six. With travel cut off by the Japanese invasion and his father having died on a business trip, the family moved in with his maternal grandfather. Musically gifted and fond of percussion, he was sold as an apprentice to a Chaozhou opera troupe when the family declined. After his mother's death he joined the Zhengmingshun Chaozhou Opera Troupe, in which his younger sister Chan Lai-kuen also performed, the two becoming its pillars. In the late 1940s they moved to Hong Kong with the troupe, playing at the Astor, Ko Shing, Tai Ping and Prince's theatres and becoming the city's earliest top Chaozhou troupe. In the mid-1950s he married fellow performer Lee Luk-yung, and the couple and his sister joined the Dongshan Chaozhou Music Company, for which he planned the 1960 production A Pair of Carved Jade and handled the music for The Innocent (1960). As a long-term partner of Tung Shan Film Co., he was responsible for the music of most of its films, among them Meeting by the Well (1961), Setting Fire to Chen Youliang (1961), The Story of Splashed Water (1962), The Riverside Pavilion (1962) and Romance of the West Chamber (1964). He also dubbed Shaw Brothers' Mandarin huangmei diao films into Chaozhou. Through the 1960s and 70s he worked with troupes such as Xintianyi, Xinlesheng and Shengyi and toured Thailand and Singapore, and he taught music to a new generation when Xintianyi was formed. He died in Hong Kong on 17 May 1980.
Chan Wing-ming was a crucial musical mainstay of Hong Kong's Chaozhou-dialect cinema, composing and arranging music for Tung Shan's operatic films and thereby preserving Chaozhou music on screen. He also dubbed Shaw Brothers' huangmei diao films into Chaozhou, widening viewing choices for Chaozhou-speaking audiences. In his later years he taught operatic music, helping to sustain a new generation of local Chaozhou performers.
Achievements
- 1940年代 · Moved to Hong Kong with the Zhengmingshun Chaozhou troupe, performing at the Astor and Ko Shing theatres as a pillar of the earliest top Chaozhou troupe.
- 1960 · Served as associate planner for the Dongshan company's stage production A Pair of Carved Jade.
- 1962 · Composed and arranged music for Tung Shan Chaozhou-dialect films such as The Story of Splashed Water and The Riverside Pavilion.