Yam Kim-fai, born Yam Lai-cho in Nanhai, Guangdong on 4 February 1913, was the leading male-role performer of Cantonese opera in Hong Kong. From the age of fourteen she trained under her aunt Siu Kiu-tin, an actress known for young martial roles, and later under Wong Lui-hap, and she studied the stage manner of Kwai Ming-yeung so closely that she was nicknamed 'the female Kwai Ming-yeung'; troupes called her 'Ah Jeh' and fans 'Yam Jeh'. Performing with all-female troupes on the rooftop stage of the Sincere department store in Guangzhou, she played the male lead with the Kwan Fong Yim Ying and Mirror Flower companies and won the title 'the fans' sweetheart' for her elegant bearing and all-round skills in singing, acting and looks. In 1943 she founded the Sun Sing troupe in Macao, whose repertoire included Morning Wife, Evening Sister-in-law and Dream of the Red Chamber; after moving to Hong Kong she joined major companies. From 1953 she and Pak Suet-sin formed a succession of troupes — Hung Wan, To Po, Lei Wing-wah and finally the Sin Fung Ming — with which she appeared in The Ninth Heaven Mystic Maiden, The Princess Cheung Ping, The Purple Hairpin and Butterfly and Red Pear Blossom until she retired from the stage in 1969. She had appeared in the film Mystery Night in 1937, began film work in earnest in 1951 with her first starring role, and between 1951 and 1968 starred in more than three hundred pictures, the last released being The Last Emperor Li (1968). In later years she mentored the Chun Fung Ming troupe of Lung Kim-sang and Mui Suet-si. She and Pak Suet-sin, partners on and off stage for decades, are remembered as one of the best-known pairs in the history of Cantonese opera, and her films preserved many stage classics on screen. Voted one of the ten most popular Cantonese film stars fourteen times from 1957, she died of lung cancer at her Happy Valley home on 29 November 1989, aged 77. In 1995 the 14th Hong Kong Film Awards gave her the Cantonese Opera Film Century Award in tribute.
Yam Kim-fai specialised in playing male roles while a woman, carrying the elegant scholar-lover figure of Cantonese opera onto the screen in more than three hundred films between 1951 and 1968, so preserving many stage classics on film. With Pak Suet-sin she turned works such as The Princess Cheung Ping and The Purple Hairpin into defining versions of the repertoire, and through the Chun Fung Ming troupe she trained successors including Lung Kim-sang and Mui Suet-si. Their decades-long partnership made them one of the most enduring symbols of Hong Kong Cantonese opera, and her recordings and films are still studied and performed today.
Achievements
- 1943 · Founded the Sun Sing Cantonese opera troupe in Macao, whose signature works included Morning Wife, Evening Sister-in-law and Dream of the Red Chamber.
- 1953 · From 1953 formed a series of troupes with Suet Sin Pak, notably the Sin Fung Ming, before retiring from the stage in 1969.
- 1995 · Received the Cantonese Opera Film Century Award at the 14th Hong Kong Film Awards.