Cheung Yam-kwai, a native of Chaoyang, Guangdong, was the son of the elder brother of Cheung Muk-chun, leader of the Xintiancai Chaozhou Opera Troupe. He grew up in the troupe with his younger brother Cheung Yam-shing and both were apprentices; after the War of Resistance against Japan he came to Hong Kong with his two uncles, Cheung Muk-sang (also known as Cheung Tai-kwan) and Cheung Muk-chun. From the 1960s he acted in Chaozhou-dialect opera films with Xintiancai, working as stage director on The Stepmother (1960), A Wronged Daughter-in-Law (1960), Unchanged Hearts (1961), Judge Bao's Encounter with the Deposed Empress (1961) and Justice and Revenge (1962). On Phoenix Ornament (1961) he was at once stage director, music accompanist and co-star, and he was a music accompanist on Madam Lan Ching (1962) before taking combined stage-director and acting credits on two 1962 titles. From 1962 he concentrated on acting, mostly as a comic and villainous character: The Misplaced Love-Token and The Sword of Emerald Frost (both 1962), Fairy Pearl (1963), The Murder Case During the Lantern Festival, An Arduous Search for Husband's Remains and Hibiscus Fairy (all 1964), Mantrap and Two-Year-Old Husband (1965), The Nymph of River Lo (1966), The Heroic Pair (1967), The Escapees and The Execution (1967). He played a female matchmaker in two of these films and a greedy prisoner escort in Mantrap. In all he appeared in more than thirty Chaozhou-dialect films, and he also joined the troupe in making Chaozhou opera recordings.
A member of the Xintiancai Chaozhou opera troupe family, Cheung Yam-kwai took part in more than thirty Chaozhou-dialect opera films from the 1960s, serving as stage director and musician before specialising as a character and villain actor, preserving Chaozhou opera performance on film.
Achievements
- 1960 · Worked as stage director on The Stepmother and A Wronged Daughter-in-Law.
- 1961 · Took stage direction, musical accompaniment and acting roles on Phoenix Ornament.
- 1965 · Played the greedy prisoner escort in Mantrap.