Tang started out as in-law of the Sit household. Tang's rise from modesty to greatness went through a process generally taken to have three stages of remarkable improvements.
Initial stage • 靳永棠 (?–2004) Kan Wing Tong On 25 August 1989, months before Wong Yue Sang (王粵生) (8 January 1919 – 12 December 1989) died, Mr. Wong talked about his experience working with Tang on Fong (濃茶 strong tea) and Hung (醇酒 fine wine), vocal styles dominate the
Cantonese opera world since the early 1950s, with Hung mostly to the north of Hong Kong while Fong in Hong Kong and overseas until Hung visited Hong Kong in 1980 again since her departure in 1955. Hung presented the second Mrs. Tang (Cheng Meng-har, 鄭孟霞)
The Immortal Zhang Yuqiao (the Most Respectable Courtesan) (萬世流芳張玉喬) The brutal blow to Tang's ego resulted in the first sign of enlightenment, better crafted lines spoken by the husband
Cai Yong (蔡伯喈) in ending scene of
The Story of the Lute in early 1956.
The Summer Snow (see
The Injustice to Dou E)
Influenced by Cheng Meng-har Born to a Chinese father and a Japanese mother, Cheng Meng-har was an accomplished Chinese opera performer (in Shanghai, China) long before Tang started diving into some of his most famous career choices. production company (興友影業公司), with Yam as
Jia Baoyu the then contemporary best known
Jia Baoyu from a 1962 Chinese opera film, having her student with only a year of training to debut as such character. The 1983 version with
Loong Kim Sang (Loong) as the male lead under such circumstances. In 1959, Yam was photographed with a pen in hand reviewing Tang's last title, with the second male lead for debut, Lam Kar Sing, and Tang at the table. Yam and Loong, her successor, had demonstrated how little difference it made when they each had different co-stars in these titles known as the
BIG FOUR. (
A Romance of Pear Blossoms is sometimes known as one of the BIG FIVE.)
Repertoire by chronological order of debut:- •
The Peony Pavilion (1956) (see
Tang Xianzu) : According to
Hong Kong Movie DataBase (HKMDB), Pak Yin (
Chinese: 白燕) played
Du Liniang (
Chinese: 杜麗娘), as the lead actress in two Cantonese films. Both historical period dramas were adapted version of this story. Tang started his own piece later in 1956. :: In
The Peony Pavilion (1940),
Cheung Ying (
Chinese: 張瑛) played the male lead
Liu Mengmei (
Chinese: 柳夢梅). :: In
Beauty Raised from the Dead (1956), set in "Late
Qing Dynasty and Early Republic of China",
Cheung Wood-yau (
Chinese: 張活游) played the male lead
Liu Mengmei (
Chinese: 柳夢梅). Tang borrowed the ending plot in this film as the magical ending for his last piece in 1959. :::Cheung Wood-yau worked closely with Tang and his wife in Hong Kong throughout His hands were forced by the debut female lead who booked
Lee Theatre without Tang's agreement to have this title ready. : According to
Cheng Meng-har, Tang wanted to quit as a Cantonese opera playwright. : Many sudden deaths () related to this title have been reported throughout the six decades since debut. ::Troupe manager, Xu See (), Hong Kong, 1979 (brother of Cantonese opera playwright Xu Ruodai, author of
Dream of Red Chamber throughout the 1940s in Macau) ::Composer, Chu Ngai Kong (), Singapore, 23 June 1981 Yam (in 1968) and then Loong (since 1972) took these four titles along with many other titles of Tang all around the world, including Vietnam (1972) and Las Vegas (1982). However, their reputation as
iconic started in the mid-1970s. In those years since the 1970 grinding halt, Cantonese film productions in Hong Kong were few and far between. Loong and classmates were limited by design to play characters in these four only and none others, in order to boost the status of these titles of teachers. (This is very common among Yam's generation of performers. Those grew up in the 1960s in Hong Kong keep this running in full force on various platforms funded by the general public, particularly those more talented students, to promote teachers' own status.) Yam had much more under her belt beyond these but other teachers were not in the same shoes. Fame came much faster and through wider audience from cinemas than theaters. Loong's first film as male lead was, except for Yam who made it happen, an unexpected hit. The grand plan came only since then. It started with the 1976 film
Princess Chang Ping directed by
John Woo and ended with the next low-budget production by director
Lee Tit. Lee wanted to make
The Peony Pavilion (1956) in 1975 but in vain. Being under the weather in 1976, Yam neither monitored the work of Lee nor found the result satisfactory after it was all said and done. Egoism, copyrights and profitability led to wars among studios/directors/producers/copyright-holders. Yam put an end to all related activities. Loong's loyalty to Yam (and therefore stage productions) was tested. Loong sent the offer of "HK$100,000 per film" right back to Yam. That stopped the yet-to-be-named person in his track. Director Kong Lung (龍剛) talked about his desire related to
The Reincarnation of a Beauty (1959) in 1989. Characteristics of the
BIG FOUR (FIVE) are:- 1). Main characters:- :Male leads - multi-faceted but always a loyal lover :Female leads - hubris, contrary to introverted (back then generally accepted quality in a good woman) and audience did not care for her performance in the 1956 flop
Dream of Red Chamber () 2). Plot good in structure and logic :All are adaptations of existing Chinese opera stories from authors before Tang instead of his own creation. 3). Polished and well crafted lines/lyrics :Lesson learnt from Sun Yim Yeung Troupe. 4). Melodies and scores well-received :Wong Yue Sang (see #1 above) and Chu Ngai Kong (see #4 above) came up with most of the well-known pieces. :Mr. Wong Sum Fan (王心帆 8). Sing and dance
but Shippers like Natalia Chan had expressed their
360 degree fantasy such as "'''too bad they don't....'
" while two sisters had a plan for their own boy'' toy. Ban on actors/actresses sharing the stage was lifted about 20 years before this. The interaction on stage between actors (or actress like Yam) in male lead roles and actresses in female lead roles were very modest. 10).
Happy ending (meet-date-marry-reunion in heaven if not on earth)
Roles as mature with life experience Tang chaired the script-review sessions with the six pillars. Ng Kwun Lai was an up-and-coming performer who just hit big with her
martial agility in the breakthrough role of
Leang Hung-yuk (meaning Red Jade) in ''How Liang Hongyu's War Drum Caused the Jin Army to Retreat
(1956) when Tang was ready to help her excel as "verdant-robed girls" (qingyi''). To commemorate the 30th anniversary of Tang's passing, Ng (without any successor to carry water for her) put five titles of their collaboration on stage in
Hong Kong City Hall from 4 to 8 in June 1989. The female leads, not described as particularly lovable, in these five titles go through life starting out young or already married with a son while the male leads (both primary and secondary) had major interactions between themselves. Cast for debut were all actors who could hold their own courts. No successors to those actors however spent time on these titles as Loong did for Yam's legacy titles. That may explain the relative lack of popularity compared to the BIG FOUR. Original male lead for most of these titles was Ho Fei Fan, a well-known vocalist who held his own court and one of the very few actors who successfully portrayed
Jia Baoyu. In
The Blessings of the Moon, the original scene
when male and female leads meet, date and get engaged has been replaced by a
clean version for the male lead (a scholar) to look more decent in the minds of actors who picked up the baton since Ho. Actors of a generation (known to have extramarital affairs or as adulterers off stage), except only one recently, found such move of a hot-blooded young man, a scholar, to be scandalous. Hard to tell if a scholar's mind in the gutter or those actors' minds in the gutter was the true reason. It was confirmed to be the later in 2018 by
Law Kar Ying. ==Copyright==