Pong Chow-wah was born in 1928, a native of Nanhai in Guangdong who graduated from Guangzhou's Bagui Middle School, and came from a Cantonese opera family. He entered the opera world at twenty-four as a stage manager before turning to scriptwriting, his first libretto being one he co-wrote with Chan Tin-chung. He wrote numerous operas, including vehicles for Sun Ma Sze-tsang and Leung Mo-seung. In 1955 he began working in film, at first as a lyricist, taking part in a 1955 screenplay and writing his first full script in 1957. Between 1955 and 1975 he wrote more than forty films, the great majority co-written with Lee Yuen-man, with the two also supplying the lyrics. Their joint works include several well-known Cantonese musicals of 1961 to 1967, while films he wrote alone include two 1957 pictures; his last screenplay was in 1968. He also wrote many theme songs, notably one sung by Connie Chan Po-chu in 1966. As assistant director he worked on films directed by Lee Sun-fung in 1958 and Lee Tit in 1959. In the late 1960s he moved into the record industry, working for Pathé and Fung Hang and producing records such as the duet album by Adam Cheng and Liza Wang and a Cantonese opera pairing. He also spent over seven years in a commercial television variety unit, and in 1986 was still writing lyrics for an ATV series; he was a member of the Hong Kong Composers and Authors Society. He died of a heart attack in 1991, aged 63.
From a Cantonese opera family, Pong rose from stage manager to screenwriter and wrote more than forty film scripts, most of them co-written with Lee Yuen-man. His lyrics and scripts supplied much material for 1950s and 60s Cantonese opera films, and he later worked in record production and television lyric writing, spanning opera, cinema and popular music.
Achievements
- 1955 · Began working in film, taking part in a 1955 screenplay
- 1961 · Co-wrote a well-known musical with Lee Yuen-man
- 1986 · Wrote lyrics for an ATV television series