Tang Ti-sheng () (18 June 1917 – 15 September 1959), also known as Dickson Tong Tik-sang, born Tang Kang-nien (), was a Cantonese opera playwright, scriptwriter, and film director. His contributions to Cantonese opera significantly influenced Hong Kong's reform and development of the genre beginning in the late 1930s.
During his twenty-year career, Tang composed over 400 operas and achieved immense popularity within the Cantonese opera scene. He also wrote the film scripts adapted from his own operas, directed the movies and at times acted in them himself.
He collapsed in the Lee Theatre and died later of intracerebral hemorrhage in St. Paul's Hospital (Hong Kong). He was survived by his second wife (鄭孟霞About Cheng Meng-har 5 September 2011 as edited by Huang Xia Bo, Cantonese Cinema Study Association (In Chinese Only) of 17 years), their two daughters (唐淑珠、唐淑儀) and two more children (son 唐寶堯 and daughter 唐淑嫻 by his first wife 薛覺清 of five years). A fifth (irrespective of age) child Cheng mentioned in a 1989 interview, after the passing of Yam Kim Fai, is not listed on Tang's headstone.
Early life Tang was born in Heilongjiang province, northeastern China. Upon graduating from the Guangdong Sun Yat-sen Memorial Middle School, Tang reportedly attended the Shanghai Fine Arts School and also the Shanghai Baptist College. With the outbreak of the Second Sino-Japanese War, Tang fled south to Hong Kong in 1937 where he joined the Kok Sin Sing Opera Troupe (覺先聲粵劇團) led by his double (cousin) in-law and one of the "Four Super Stars" Sit Gok Sin (薛覺先). His first wife was the tenth sister (Sit Gok Ching, 薛覺清) of Sit while Sit was married to his paternal first cousin (唐雪卿). Tang worked as a copyist and assistant to Fung Chi-fen (馮志芬) and Nam Hoi Sup-sam Long (南海十三郎), two famous writers for the troupe.
Encouraged by Sit Gok Sin, Tang began his career as a playwright in 1938 with his first (being taken as an announcement of his intention to be in the arena) opera The Consoling Lotus of Jiangcheng (). Throughout the next twenty years Tang wrote a total of 446 opera scripts, while 80 of those were adapted for films.
During the Japanese occupation of Hong Kong, Tang penned many scripts for his wife and her co-stars to stage in return for food (mostly rice) and found his footing eventually.#2 of #30Leaped into fame with the script White Poplar, Red Tears () that Yam Kim Fai found worth "giving it a try" when script was short in supply.
It was first staged by the New Voice Opera Troupe of Yam and then adapted for a film (released 5 March 1950) starring Tang's close personal friend Luo Pinchao. Yam also released a vocal recording of the theme song with a well-known vocalist as the female lead.
In total, Tang directed nine films and acted in four of them. His first script for film production was The Tolling Bell (1940) with the help of Ng Cho-fan who in 1989 described how sick Tang looked the afternoon before collapsing in the Lee Theatre.
Career 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 Ng Cho-fanUpon the divorce in 1941/2, Tang started working mostly with Chan Kam Tong (1906-1981) (陳錦棠) to make ends meet. Chan, the first student of Sit, voted as champion among young warriors by the audience in the 1950s, is on record his most frequent customer. There is only one title Red Silk Shoes and The Murder, with no fighting scene at all, Tang wrote for Chan in 1957 is still popular today.
Intermediate stage The end of Second Sino-Japanese War started the busiest decade, until films took over, of the 1900s in Hong Kong and SE Asia as a whole for Cantonese opera. When Tang's work still had plenty of room for improvement, the vocal performances (and fighting scenes which were few and far between in Tang's work) made a big difference. His preference to work with, actresses as female leads over top-billed male leads, were Fong and Hung. His archrival was husband of an actress who is famous for mostly fighting scenes although she was also known by fellow performers as great old-school vocalist as Lady White Snake. Fong and Hung vocal styles were both new creations at the time. The two camps each had a usual venue on opposite side of the HK harbor.
Tang worked with musicians/composers below (See .) regularly in the 1950s. Only some names are available in English. Except the Chu brothers and those who had already died, they talked about Tang on radio shows in the 1980s. 王粵生 (1919–1989) Wong Yue Sang 林兆鎏 (1917–1979) Lam Siu Lau 吳一嘯 (1906–1964) Ng Yat Siu 朱毅剛 (1922–1981) Chu Ngai Kong, brothers 朱兆祥 (1926–1986) Chu Siu Cheung, brothers 劉兆榮 (1923–2001) Lau Siu Wing 黎浪然 (?–2007) Langran Li (Li was the family name) 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 onradio show (唐滌生藝術迴響). Tang's collaboration with Mr. Wong created theme songs that were instant hits at debut on stage. One example was the Hung Sin Nui December 1951 hit Red Candle Tears (紅燭淚).王粵生的門生近年編印的《王粵生作品選創作小曲集》所記，《紅燭淚》是特為粵劇《搖紅燭化佛前燈》 （首演於一九五一年十二月份）譜製的，原名是《身似搖紅燭影》，由唐滌生作詞，王粵生譜曲，紅線女首唱。#6 of #30Lyrics that Tang wrote before (instead of after) Mr. Wong came up with the musical score.
Fong Yim Fun, of Sun Yim Yeung Opera Troupe, was the other actress known for, inter alia, holding her own court with vocal performances, on stage throughout the 1950s. She worked with Tang until she retired around the time Tang died.
These two “little palace maids” (一對小宮燈) of the Shing Sou Lin Opera Troupe (勝壽年粵劇團),Fong Yim Fun of the "speak softly and carry a big stick" generation – RTHK Radio 1 【Free as the Wind】 06 December 2016 Episode, guest professor referred to the joke in Heaven Brought Us Together (1959 天賜良緣) which is not the opera now with same Chinese title but with characters and plot identical to The Merry Phoenix (1958 彩鳳喜迎春) 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 trophy for Golden Needle Award of RTHK Top Ten Chinese Gold Songs Award 1986 (posthumous).
The Immortal Zhang Yuqiao (the Most Respectable Courtesan) (萬世流芳張玉喬)#11 of #30was a milestone in his career when he was asked to help an academic Jian Youwen (簡又文教授) in 1954 for the Sun Yim Yeung Troupe. 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)#17 of #30 is the last hit collaboration of Fong/Tang and Yam Kim Fai while Hung and Yam stopped sharing the stage much earlier in 1953.
His scripts, albeit monolithically Mandarin and Butterfly 鴛鴦蝴蝶派, gradually matured to making the performers (戲擔人) successful instead of relying on the performers (人擔戲) to make his scripts successful.
Final stage Tang, in and out of hospital for his heart problem, was rumored to be mixing alcohol with coffee as he encountered writer's block in these four years. Mind over heart? Or heart over mind? He hurried to throw in the kitchen sink. One reason could be that linchpin Yam Kim Fai, after more than 30 years, was ready to quit stage performance entirely especially after some surgeries in the 1950s. That is, make or break, time for last call.
Tang only worked with those he found worthwhile to spend time and effort on. For example, vocalist Tam Lan Hing (譚蘭卿), whose physique was same as the first Mrs. Tang, was never on Tang's radar.
At this stage, Tang immersed himself in work to create "the perfect (smart, beautiful, educated,...) female lead for the male lead to dive head first for" roles for only his favorite few actresses. Audience was led to admire, respect, love, .., pity, feel sorry for the noble/honorable female characters he wrote. What's leftover for the male lead to make do with gave them very few "roles of a lifetime". In 1990, one columnist wondered why ladies in the audience would be hooked to the male lead character and eventually also to the performer personally.The Man from The Peony Pavilion by Chow Yiu Fai 23 March 1990 【Hong Kong Economic Journal】 (In Chinese Only)
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.An ‘’in Cantonese’’ only radio show had a complete account of Tang's life and work, from birth to death. Other thanpersonal hygiene (taking a bath or not), lifestyle and family, major contributions in several aspects the second Mrs. Tang made are:-
Generally Scripts before 1954 Stage craft in the form of Patterned Performance Segments (排場). (That is, the essential training for performers when only the plots were provided. Well-established before complete scripts were ever written for performers.) since 1954 Intellectual appeal improved More sophisticated, less slapstick Drawn from Chinese classics and poetry that they found in junk yards Contacts Instead of travelling like Hung and Sit had to, Cantonese opera performers were introduced to assorted Chinese opera performers in Hong Kong by Cheng. Ma Lianliang was in Hong Kong briefly and met with Lang Chi Bak who talked about the occasion in 1986 on radio. Others, particularly those Mei Lanfang related, stayed behind and were fully engaged for decades as tutors and mentors. Costume Hand-embroidered (Su Xiu, Suzhou embroidery crafted in areas around Suzhou, Jiangsu Province) instead of shimmering Sequin Title specific Mistake at the Flower Festival Beijing-style acrobatics in shoe-making scene The Reincarnation of a Beauty Ghost-walking acrobatics (rigor mortis state of human body projected) after breaking out of the coffin in rescue the scholar scene
Roles as mid to late teens In 1959, Yam edited as she saw fit when she chaired the script-review sessions with six pillars and Tang at the table. Photograph recorded this scene with Lam Kar Sing in it.
The audience laughed out loud when a female lead delivered her line about her character being 15/16 years old only in some of the biggest stage productions in 2000s Hong Kong. The costume design, bag lady in high price fabric, did not provide the kind of support needed to fight gravity and therefore did not help either. For male leads, the lack of precision about age generally makes it less offensive to audience when actors (actresses mind their figures more) in those male lead roles show their pot belly on stage if they still have all the other essential qualities such as good vocal performances.
While Tang had some difficulties before finding his footing, he wrote and published his life's work relatively quickly (compared to Alexandre Dumas, père and Alexandre Dumas, fils). Those titles now represent Tang in Cantonese opera. He understood the limit of imagination of audience to follow his desire, which was see the female lead as irresistible, with the male lead supporting the desire.
The 1956 Pan4 Hing1 (顰卿) was not a success to say the least. As such, what did not happen was the film Dream of Red Chamber directed by Lau Hak Suen and produced by a newHow Chan Kung Reprimanded Cho (1957), an operatic film, was directed by Lau Hak Suen while the cast included himself as Cao Cao and Mui Yee as Diaochan. The production company Gap Sang was set up only for this film apparently. production company (興友影業公司), with Yam as Jia Baoyu along with:- Lau Hak Suen Poon Yat On Yam Bing Yee Pak Bik (白碧) Fung Wong Leui