December 24, 2011

Birthdays of some HK stars

All the pictures below are from the 9-year-old calender. So the photos you see here were taken at least 9 years ago..

Long Koon Tin was born in 1959, so he is 52. Wong Chew Kuarn's birthday is 9 November, but her birth year is not stated.


Yuen Siu Fai is 66.


Mun Chin Sui is 69.


Ng Chin Feng is 65.



Li Long is 59.


Law Kar Ying is 65.






December 20, 2011

an old postcard

While spring-cleaning my cupboards I found an old postcard. I suppose all the faces you see in it are local artistes. Do you know anyone? I think I recognize one of them - the girl doing make-up.


Do you keep old calendars? I also found a 9-year-old calendar with pictures and birthdays or birth dates of some HK opera artistes. How old do you think these two stars are - Long Koon Tin and Wong Chew Kuarn ? Answers in the next post.



By the way, when you do spring cleaning you cannot be too sentimental. Otherwise you will be reluctant to throw away your old things. Many of these things probably have a small place in your memory. But, most likely you will not look at them again until your next spring cleaning and I think you will also not miss them if they are no more there.


Have you read about the young man who collects beer bottles? He already has about 1300 of them in his house. Then there are people who collect dolls, teddy bears and other toys. I guess finding the space to keep them and cleaning them would be quite a headache. In future would it still be a joy to clean them or would it be a chore?

December 17, 2011

opera shop

I rarely look at the classified advertisements in the papers. Some days ago this one caught my attention. So I took a closer look.


It was an ad for Unisong, a shop selling Chinese opera goods.


I mentioned this shop in the post Where to buy Cantonese opera CDs. The shop was in Chinatown Point then. So now it is in Fook Hai Building..



Kids performing opera

聲輝粵劇推廣協會- 陳昶廷、李若萱 - 粵劇折子戲 - 《鳳閣恩仇未了情》

December 14, 2011

Dream of the West Chamber 西楼错梦

Last month I watched the Cantonese opera Dream of The West Chamber presented by the Eunos Community Club Chinese Opera Group. The leading artistes were Wong Mei Ling (Lynn Ng) and Chan Fook Hong.


From what I recall, in recent years only two Cantonese opera groups in community clubs present full-length shows - ECHO in Eunos CC (lead by Wong Mei Ling) and the group in Tanjong Pagar CC (lead by Lou Mee Wah).

Putting up an opera show is a tedious task. Besides taking care of your own role you have to attend to a dozen other things. You also need a group of good friends to help you. Then you have to get financial support too. Mei Ling may not be very well-known, nonetheless she is passionate about her art and is tenacious in the pursuit of artistic excellence.


Dream is not the type of shows that attract young people. One thing, it is very long. Another thing, it can be boring at times even to fans and ardent supporters of Cantonese opera.


That afternoon, the show started several minutes after 3 and ended at 8 at night. There was an interval followed by a short souvenir-presentation ceremony. Even if you disregard this and the time for change of scenes, the show itself is about 4.5 hours long.

Besides Mei Ling and Fook Hong, veteran artistes Leong Kam Fai, Chow Chun Hong and Chen Ming Cai also put up creditable performances. I think this was the first time I saw Chen Ming Cai. According to the write-up in the souvenir booklet, Chen Ming Cai has performed Peking opera, Teochew opera as well as Cantonese opera before.