Cheung Lung-wah was born in Chaoyang, Guangdong, into a Teochew opera family. His father Cheung Muk-sang (also known as Cheung Tai-kwan) was the fourth elder brother of Cheung Muk-chun, and the two brothers ran the Xintiancai Chaozhou Opera Troupe, one of the main companies behind Hong Kong's Teochew-dialect cinema. Chaozhou-dialect films emerged in the 1950s and 1960s for audiences in Hong Kong and among Teochew communities across Southeast Asia; because their market reached beyond Hong Kong, troupes such as Xintiancai could keep touring after the films went into decline. Cheung was a member of Xintiancai from childhood and later appeared in its Chaozhou-language films as a child actor, playing the younger brother of the lead actress Ma Wenluan in The Stepmother (1960) and An'an, the son of the female character Pang San'niang, in A Wronged Daughter-in-Law (Tor Ying, 1960). He went on to take supporting roles in A Common Scholar (1963), Romance in a Rainstorm (1965) and Two-Year-Old Husband (1965). As Xue Kui in The Sit Family (1962) he had a more substantial part, remembered for wielding twin hammers while bickering with the lead character played by Chan Chor-wai. With its family dramas, historical tales and romances, the Teochew repertoire trained performers to move from child roles through supporting parts to wusheng. Cheung studied under the Northern martial-arts master Kwan Ching-leung, and by the two-part film The Scholar Cui Mingfeng (1968), in which he played the villain's henchman hunting the protagonist, he was clearly moving towards wusheng roles. After Teochew-dialect films faded he performed Chaozhou opera overseas with Xintiancai, serving as its martial-arts choreographer while also appearing on stage as a wusheng; he wrote, directed and starred in the short play Stopping the Horse in Singapore to good notices, and directed pieces such as San Jia Fu for the troupe. He later worked occasionally as a martial-arts stuntman in films. Travelling with Xintiancai to Thailand and Singapore, he also acted as the troupe's martial-arts director, carrying the fighting traditions of Teochew opera to overseas stages.
Cheung Lung-wah came from the Xintiancai Teochew opera family and moved from child roles to wusheng; after Teochew-dialect films faded he toured Thailand and Singapore with the troupe as both martial-arts instructor and performer, remaining on overseas stages in the late years of Hong Kong's Teochew cinema.
Achievements
- 1960 · Played the younger brother of the lead actress Ma Wenluan in The Stepmother and An'an, son of Pang San'niang, in A Wronged Daughter-in-Law.
- 1962 · Played Xue Kui in The Sit Family, wielding twin hammers opposite Chan Chor-wai.
- 1968 · Played the villain's henchman in the two-part film The Scholar Cui Mingfeng, marking a move towards wusheng roles.