Lee Yuen-man, a native of Xinhui in Guangdong, was born on 24 July 1912 into a scholarly family and received an early grounding in Chinese literature. A gifted musician, he could accompany Cantonese opera on several instruments, notably the erhu and the flute, by the age of thirteen, and by sixteen he was already writing operatic songs, among them such popular numbers as Where Does Spring Return To and Ascending the Tower on the Ninth Day. At eighteen he coordinated the music group of the Guangzhou Sports Association and later lectured at the Guangdong National Education Institute's Chinese Music Study Section; he was also a member of the Guangzhou arts group Su She, and after the war opened a song hall in Guangzhou with the Guangdong musician Liang Yizhong and a nightclub with Kong Qiang. He sang on provincial radio and made guest appearances on stage. His film career began in 1933, when Guangzhou's Asia Studio hired him as musician for Iron Horse, Faithful Fowl, the city's first sound film. Moving to Hong Kong in 1949, he joined the Yongye Film Production Company as a producer and worked on End of the Day (1949), Dark Paradise (1950) and Red Rose, the Songstress (1952). Most active in the 1950s, he wrote music for My Kingdom for a Husband (1957–58), Swallows Come Home (1958) and The 12 Hairpins and the 12 Balustrades (1964). His first screenplay, The Precious Lotus Lamp (1956), proved so popular that it revived the operatic film genre; later scripts included The Romantic Monk (1956), Return on a Snowy Night (1957), Rescue at the West River (1960) and Little Prime Minister (1961–62). Working for Shaw Brothers, MP & GI, The Union, Kong Ngee and Ti Seng, and credited by the Hong Kong Film Archive with writing, composing or arranging music for nearly two hundred Hong Kong films, his final screenplay was The Imperial Warrant (1968) and his last film assignment was associate producer on Laugh in the Sleeve (1975). In 1965 he moved into recording, co-founding Fung Hang Record Limited, and retired in 1973. He died in 1997.
Lee Yuen-man linked operatic song writing, screenwriting and record publishing, making him one of the few figures to span the Cantonese opera stage, cinema and the recording industry. His Precious Lotus Lamp (1956) revived the costume operatic film and steered the direction of Hong Kong musical cinema in the late 1950s. The many scripts and lyrics he wrote for major studios carried Cantonese opera stories to wide audiences through both film and records.
Achievements
- 1933 · Worked as a musician at Guangzhou's Asia Studio, composing the music for Iron Horse, Faithful Fowl, the city's first sound film.
- 1956 · Wrote his first screenplay, The Precious Lotus Lamp (three parts), spurring a wave of costume operatic films.
- 1965 · Co-founded Fung Hang Record Limited, releasing Cantonese opera, music and pop records.