Siu Sang (1927 – 27 November 2004), originally named Siu Ling and from Xinhui in Guangdong, was known in television circles as 'Uncle'. A Hong Kong drama producer who specialised in long martial-arts serials, he began in the cinema as a cinema subtitler and ticket-tearer, then worked as a continuity man, assistant director and screenwriter in the 1950s. Moving into television in the early 1970s, he joined RTV; in 1976, when RTV did not acquire the rights to Jin Yong's novels, he moved to Commercial Television, where he produced The Legend of the Condor Heroes and The Return of the Condor Heroes (1976) as well as Fox Volant of the Snowy Mountain and Meteor, Butterfly, Sword (1978). After the station closed in 1978 he returned to RTV as a producer, working on long martial-arts serials such as Reincarnated (1979), which briefly lifted RTV's ratings above TVB's and forced TVB to counter with new dramas. In 1981 he moved to TVB, where he adapted Jin Yong's work into Demi-Gods and Semi-Devils (1982) and The Return of the Condor Heroes (1983), the latter drawing ratings in the sixties. Over more than forty years in television he cast and helped train actors including Andy Lau, Tony Leung, Michael Miu, Felix Wong and Kent Tong (the 'Five Tiger Generals'), as well as Michelle Yim, Alex Man, Leon Lai, Ekin Cheng and Nadia Chan. He also wrote lyrics for television theme songs such as Big Sister, Guangdong Haohan, Fox Volant and The Peerless. He returned to ATV in 1992, working there until he was laid off in 1998, and continued to produce serials for the station in the early 2000s. He died of liver cancer on 27 November 2004 and was buried in the Chinese Permanent Cemetery at Tseung Kwan O.
Siu Sang excelled at long martial-arts serials, bringing the novels of Jin Yong and Gu Long to the screen, and works such as Reincarnated and The Return of the Condor Heroes successively redrew the ratings contest between the two stations; the actors he cast went on to become studio mainstays, shaping the look of Hong Kong's televised martial-arts drama.
Achievements
- 1979 · Produced 'Reincarnated' at RTV, briefly lifting its ratings above TVB's
- 1981 · Moved to TVB and adapted Jin Yong's novels, producing serials such as 'Demi-Gods and Semi-Devils'
- 1983 · Produced 'The Return of the Condor Heroes' at TVB, which drew ratings in the sixties