Cho Ban was a Cantonese opera and film actor and director active in Hong Kong in the 1930s and 1940s, best known for the civil-military lead (man mo sang) in opera. On 25 October 1934, in that role and alongside the principal female lead Lam Siu-mui and the clown Liu Mung-kok, he took part in the first public performance of the Cantonese opera Tong Nui Fa (The Princess Cheung Ping), written by Leung Kam-tong and staged by the Guangzhou troupe San Tin Fa at the Po Hing Theatre in Kowloon, Hong Kong, making him one of the earliest performers of the celebrated work. That first version survives only in fragments; the version known today was developed by such artists as Yam Kim-fai and Pak Suet-sin into a classic of the genre, and was adapted into a film in 1959 and recorded on disc by Entertainment Records in 1960. In 1937 he appeared in the Grandview company's Cantonese comedy Twelve Golden Hairpins as Hing-sum, one of the twelve women, and fell in love with his co-star Chu Kim-kam (Chu Pui-shui) during a play-within-a-film, later marrying her. He directed several features, including The Amorous Angel (1937), Peace Through the Generations (1938) and Blood-bathed Flowers (1942), and acted in such films as The Singing Actress (1935) and Scorched Earth Resistance (1937). His active years coincided with the rise and boom of Hong Kong's sound Cantonese cinema, when many opera performers moved into film, and he was one of those who both acted and directed. Later settling in Guangdong, he was branded a rightist in the opera world during the Anti-Rightist Campaign and was struggled against at mass meetings; he spent his last years in hard circumstances, and much of his personal record has been lost.
Cho was among the earliest performers of the Cantonese opera The Princess Cheung Ping in 1934 and one of the small group of actor-directors in Hong Kong's early sound Cantonese cinema, while his later troubles on the mainland reflected the fate of artists of his generation.
Achievements
- 1934 · Performed the civil-military lead in the first public staging of the Cantonese opera The Princess Cheung Ping with the Guangzhou troupe San Tin Fa at the Po Hing Theatre.
- 1937 · Appeared in the Grandview Cantonese comedy Twelve Golden Hairpins as Hing-sum, one of the twelve women.
- 1942 · Directed the film Blood-bathed Flowers, working both as actor and director in Cantonese cinema.