Chow Lok, born Chow Fong-fai and a native of the Xia-shan district of Chaoyang in Guangdong, graduated from a Shantou overseas-Chinese school, where she was a classmate of Chong Suet-kuen, later a celebrated female xiaosheng of Teochew opera, and the two often performed and sang together as students. She moved to Hong Kong in 1957 and, on Chong's recommendation, joined the Tung Shan Teochew Opera Troupe. In 1961, under the stage name Mok Che (also Muk-chi), she made her screen debut in the Teochew-dialect film Su Liu Niang, playing the male lead Guo Jichun; she then shifted to laodan roles, first playing Empress Dowager Liu in a 1961 costume picture and then, as Chow Lok, appearing as the wife of Guo Ziyi in another 1961 release. She went on to specialise in comic female roles such as matchmakers and shrews, winning praise in films including a 1962 pair, Dripping Water and Tian Qi-lang. Never formally trained, she taught herself by imitation and modelled her bearing on the Cantonese opera stars Pun Yat-on and Tam Lan-hing. Besides the Tung Shan company's output she appeared in Ling Dong's The Injustice to Dou E (1963) and a 1965 picture from Ha Fan's company, making over a dozen Teochew films in all. In 1964 she toured Southeast Asia with fellow artists, worked with many troupes over the years, retired from the stage in 1982 and died in Hong Kong in 2017.
Though never formally trained, Chow Lok made her name in Teochew opera through self-taught imitation, excelling in comic female roles and becoming a much-prized comic presence in 1960s Hong Kong Teochew film while leaving a distinctive performing template for the local Teochew stage.
Achievements
- 1961 · Made her Teochew-film debut under the stage name Mok Che as the male lead Guo Jichun in Su Liu Niang
- 1962 · Specialised in comic female roles, playing memorable characters in Dripping Water and Tian Qi-lang
- 1964 · Toured Southeast Asia with fellow artists to promote her films