Wang Shun, whose original name was Wang Xiaoshun, was a native of Chenghai, Guangdong; his year of birth is unknown. An adept erhu player with a deep knowledge of Han opera and Chaozhou music, he settled in Hong Kong after the war and began writing film music in the 1950s, first playing accompaniment for Tong Tik-sang's Cantonese film The Dream Encounter Between Emperor Wu of Han and Lady Wai (1954). From 1958 he worked across Mandarin, Amoy-dialect and Chaozhou-dialect cinema. For Shaw Brothers he composed and arranged music for a series of Mandarin huangmei diao pictures, winning the Asian Film Festival's Best Music awards for Diau Charn (1958) and The Kingdom and the Beauty (1959); later Shaw titles included Yang Kwei-fei (1962), Empress Wu Tse-tien (1963), The Story of Sue San and Beyond the Great Wall (both 1964). His first Amoy-dialect work was Shrews from Afar (1958), starring Xiao Juan (Ivy Ling Po) and Chong Sit Fong, followed by titles such as True Love (1959), Advertisement Beauty (1959), The Fake Phoenix (1959), Spring Fragrance (1960) and Lotus Pan (1963) and the Chaozhou fashion film Sister-in-law of Chaozhou (1963). In 1963 he co-founded United Motion Picture Production Co., producing films including The Red-Haired Steed and The Top Scholar on Patrol (both 1963), Mantrap (1965) and The Execution (1967), and writing screenplays for Fairy and Man (1963) and The Murder Case During the Lantern Festival (1964). In 1969, when the Xintiancai troupe toured Singapore, he served as an adviser. Active in music promotion through the Hong Kong Chiu Chow Merchants Mutual Assistance Society, where he was an executive director from 1961 to 1965, he emigrated to the United States in the 1970s and died there in March 2001.
Wang Shun helped shape the music of Hong Kong's huangmei diao films, and his scores for Shaw's Diau Charn and The Kingdom and the Beauty won back-to-back Best Music honours at the Asian Film Festival. Working across Mandarin, Amoy and Chaozhou pictures, and later producing his own Chaozhou films, he embodied the mobility of the territory's film craftsmen.
Achievements
- 1958 · Composed and arranged the music for Shaw's huangmei diao film Diau Charn, winning the Asian Film Festival's Best Music award.
- 1959 · Won the Asian Film Festival's Best Music award for The Kingdom and the Beauty.
- 1963 · Co-founded United Motion Picture Production Co. and served as its producer, releasing Chaozhou films such as The Red-Haired Steed and The Top Scholar on Patrol.