Cheung Wai-kwong, born Chiang Tsz-kei in 1910 in the Meige district of Xinhui, Guangdong, kept the name Chiang Wai-kwong throughout his career. His father was a Chinese Cuban. He studied at Lingnan University in Guangzhou and, before entering films, worked in Cantonese opera as a play-booking manager. Stranded in the United States during the Second World War, he met Joseph Sunn, owner of Grandview, and directed The Ideal Couple (1947) and Lovers at the Cape (1947) for Grandview's American studio, also making The Road to Light (1946) under his original name. One of Hong Kong's most prolific directors, he made over 160 films. Joining Great Wall's Tai Seng company in 1951, he worked there for years on films such as Tears of Longing (1953), Born to Part (1955) and Fourteen Years in the Temple (1958). In 1956 he left Tai Seng to found his own Chung Kwong company, making opera films including The Fairy in the Painting (1957) and The Pitiful Girl (1959), and directing The Old Friend at the Loquat Lane (1959) and The Tale of the Lion's Roar (1959) for Taoyuan. Shaw Brothers recruited him for its Cantonese unit in 1961, where he made A Girl's Search for Love (1961) and Tears on the Cassock (1962). His output ranged across opera, moral dramas, youth films on social problems, spy thrillers, romantic dramas and musicals, and he was especially strong in comedy such as Not Married (1951) and The Fake Lunatic (1956), whose box-office success earned him the nickname 'the God of Wealth director'. Fond of innovation and of nurturing newcomers, he gave early breaks to Kong Yat-fan, Wu Fung and Adam Cheng. After finishing the Mandarin film Model Love (1971) he retired, emigrated to Canada in the early 1980s, and died in Vancouver on 2 May 1991, aged 81.
With more than 160 films to his name, Cheung Wai-kwong ranged across opera, moral drama, youth, spy and musical genres, and his comic hits such as The Fake Lunatic earned him the nickname 'the God of Wealth director'. He also gave early breaks to performers including Wu Fung and Adam Cheng, making him one of the most prolific directors of the post-war golden age of Cantonese cinema.
Achievements
- 1947 · Directed films including The Ideal Couple for Grandview, beginning his directing career.
- 1956 · Left Tai Seng Film Company and founded his own Chung Kwong company.
- 1961 · Joined Shaw Brothers' Cantonese unit, directing films such as A Girl's Search for Love.