Anthony Wong Yiu-ming (; born 16 June 1962) is a Hong Kong singer and actor. He rose to prominence as the vocalist for the Cantopop duo Tat Ming Pair during the 1980s before embarking on a solo career. He also performed and collaborated with the theatre group Zuni Icosahedron. Wong is the director for music production company People Mountain People Sea. He co-founded the LGBT rights organization Big Love Alliance and the non-profit charitable organization Renaissance Foundation. Wong and bandmate Tats Lau received the Golden Needle Award in 2019.
Early life Anthony Wong Yiu-ming was born on 16 June 1962 in Hong Kong. Wong is the youngest child of five siblings: he has two brothers and two sisters. Wong grew up in a housing estate in the Ngau Tau Kok area of East Kowloon. As a child, Wong developed a deep interest in music due in part to his eldest brother's record collection which ranged from Simon and Garfunkel to ABBA. He also became enamoured with local singers such as Paula Tsui. In addition, he developed an interest in films, often attending theater showings alone while still in elementary school.
In high school, he became a Christian and desired to become a priest. Wong eventually left the church shortly after due to the conflict of the church's general attitude towards homosexuality. Wong recalled in a 2013 interview: "Religion gave me a lot of inspiration, but it also gave me a lot of repression. I already realized I was gay by the time I reached high school, so the attitude of the church’s teachings was a strange contradiction towards me. The church was supposed to be a place to find release but it just became a place of suppression. And so I left." Wong is now indifferent towards religion.
After completing high school, he entered a television training course at TVB in 1981. During this period and after graduating from the program, Wong had a few minor roles in television productions. He worked as an assistant director for a TV program called Modern Women (婦女新姿) for two months in 1983. He also worked as a production assistant at an advertising company before quitting to attend a David Bowie concert at the Hong Kong Coliseum. He then began working as a DJ at Commercial Radio Hong Kong in 1984.
Tat Ming Pair: 1985–1991
In 1984, Tats Lau advertised in a music magazine called Rock Biweekly (搖擺雙週刊) in order to find a vocalist for his band. Wong responded to the ad and realized Lau also shared a deep interest in electronic music. In 1985, the band signed a contract with PolyGram with the help of Winnie Yu; she also named the band Tat Ming Pair (達明一派) by combining both Lau and Wong's given names. The duo released a self-titled EP in March 1986 and were an immediate critical and commercial success due in part to their unique sound and distinctive imagery. Wong's long hair prominently displayed on the cover of their first EP was considered subversive for men at the time in Hong Kong. The majority of their album art was directed by designer William Chang. Tat Ming Pair were influenced by British musicians such as Pet Shop Boys and David Bowie and also by electronic music.
In 1986, Wong starred in the Calvin Poon Yuen-leung (潘源良) film Kiss Me Good-Bye (戀愛季節) alongside Loletta Lee (李麗珍). The film contained many songs from their first full-length album Tat Ming Pair II (達明一派II) which was released in September 1986. For his performance in the film, Wong was nominated for Best New Performer at the 6th Hong Kong Film Awards.
In 1987, Wong starred in the film Golden Swallow (金燕子) alongside Cherie Chung (鍾楚紅). Tat Ming Pair's second album The Story of the Stone (石頭記) coincided with the release and an instrumental version of the title track was used as the opening theme song. The film's soundtrack also included an alternate recording of the song "Searching For Love (情探)".
The duo released two more acclaimed albums in 1988: I'm Waiting For Your Return (我等着你回來) and Do You Still Love Me? (你還愛我嗎). The former is considered Hong Kong's first concept album and won the award for Best Record Design at the 1988 RTHK Top 10 Gold Songs Awards in which the band also won the award for Best Performance.
On 27 May 1989, Tat Ming Pair participated in the Concert for Democracy in China which was a benefit concert held at the Happy Valley Racecourse in support of the students involved in the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests and massacre. The event lasted for 12 hours and raised over US$1.5 million for the students in Beijing. Wong also participated in the 1990 North American Concert for Democracy in China Tour (民主歌聲獻中華美加巡迴演唱會) in Vancouver, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Washington, D.C., Toronto and New York City alongside other prominent figures including Lo Ta-yu, John Shum, Szeto Wah, Lowell Lo and Deanie Ip.
Tat Ming Pair's final release before their initial hiatus was 1990's Nerves (神經), another concept album which contained many songs relating to the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests and massacre and unease towards the upcoming 1997 handover of Hong Kong. Also in 1990, Wong completed work in the Taiwanese film Ming Ghost (阿嬰) alongside Joey Wong. The film was later re-edited into a Category III film and released in Hong Kong in 1993.
In 1991, Tat Ming Pair split amicably over a difference in musical opinion and a desire to pursue other work.
Solo career: 1992–1995 Wong released his first solo album Faith, Hope & Love (信望愛) in January 1992. This album began his long-time musical partnership with musician Jason Choi (蔡德才), along with lyrics by Yiu-fai Chow (周耀輝), Kam Kwok-leung (甘國亮), Jimmy Ngai (魏紹恩), and Zuni Icosahedron member Pia Ho (何秀萍).
Wong desired to develop an eclectic and electronic sound for his first solo record, incorporating influences from acoustic, traditional Chinese and Indian music. The album acted as a cathartic release of Wong's feelings towards religious symbolism and his previous beliefs. The first song composed for the album was "How Great Thou Art (你真偉大)". The title was inspired by the Christian hymn although the song is about resisting autocracy and patriarchy. The album also contains the notable track "Dance, Dance, Dance (舞吧舞吧舞吧)" named after the Haruki Murakami novel of the same name. The song was written in dedication to prisoners of conscience such as Liu Xiaobo and Wang Dan and was co-written by Wong Wai-kwong (黃偉光).
Wong also appeared in the 1992 Evans Chan film To Liv(e). The film's soundtrack also contained Tat Ming Pair's song "Forbidden Colors (禁色)".
His second album, Borrowing Your Love (借借你的愛) was released in 1993. The album started his collaboration with prolific lyricist Lin Xi. Notable songs include "More, More, More...C'est L'Amour (每天你愛多一些)", "Four Seasons (四季歌)" and "Love is Colder Than Death (愛比死更冷)" which was inspired by the Rainer Werner Fassbinder movie of the same name. Much of the album's instrumentation expands Wong's interest in electronic dance music, specifically house music, although the album was also influenced by folk songs.
Wong released his first Mandarin album I'm No Angel (明明不是天使) in 1994. The album contained some of his previous songs remixed with alternate Mandarin lyrics. In addition, the album contained a remixed version of the Tat Ming Pair song "Forbidden Colors (禁色)", retitled as "I Am A Cloud (我是一片雲)" with a new arrangement and lyrics. It was also the first album that Wong promoted in Taiwan. One performance in Taiwan was later edited out of the official television broadcast due to Wong's avant-garde makeup and styling, which the program had considered too androgynous.
In 1995, Wong released the album The Darker the Night, The Brighter the Stars (愈夜愈美麗). The album produced one of Wong's biggest hit singles "Before Sunrise (春光乍洩)". The original title of the song was taken from the Chinese translation of the Michelangelo Antonioni film Blowup. The song won awards at the 1995 RTHK Top 10 Gold Songs Awards, Jade Solid Gold Best 10 Awards(十大勁歌金曲頒獎禮), the Metro Showbiz Hit Awards (新城勁爆頒獎禮), and Ultimate Song Chart Awards Presentation (叱咤樂壇流行榜頒獎典禮). One version of the music video for "Before Sunrise (春光乍洩)" featured Kelly Chen and was directed by Susie Au with cinematography by Christopher Doyle.
Also during 1995, Wong starred in a segment of the horror anthology 01:00 A.M (夜半一點鐘) directed by Wilson Yip.
Tat Ming Pair: reunion in 1996 The duo reunited in 1996 to celebrate their 10-year anniversary and released a new single "A Forbidden Fruit Once Per Day (每日一禁果)" which won the top prize at the Ultimate Song Chart Awards (叱咤樂壇流行榜) and the best original song at RTHK Top 10 Gold Songs Awards. They released their album Viva! Viva! Viva! (萬歲！萬歲！萬萬歲!) in October 1996, staging large-scale concerts filmed at Queen Elizabeth Stadium the same month. They also released a live album from these concerts entitled Viva! Viva! Viva!: The Concert (萬歲！萬歲！萬萬歲！！演唱會) in 1997.
Solo career: 1996–2005 In June 1996, Wong released the remix album 5 Loaves & 2 Fish (5餅2魚) which also contained alternate Mandarin-language versions and three new songs, most notably the track "The Little Prince (小王子)", the title of which was taken from the novella by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry.
From 28 February to 2 March 1997, Wong held three concerts called Wong Yiu Ming: People Mountain People Sea (黃耀明人山人海演唱會). There were also two larger-scaled concerts performed at the Hong Kong Coliseum. Because of the success of these concerts, Wong desired to set up his own record label. Wong then soon released the album People Mountain People Sea (人山人海) which was, with the exception of the title track and a hidden ending track, an album of cover songs by various artists such as Teresa Teng, Faye Wong, Winnie Hsin, Leon Lai, and Ekin Cheng. He also released the two compilation albums Love Unto Death (愛到死精選集) and A Mirror For the Romantic (風月寶鑑), the title of which was taken from a chapter title of the Dream of the Red Chamber
In 1997, Wong sang the Mandarin-language demo version of "Seven Years in Tibet" from which David Bowie studied for his own Mandarin version of the song. The Mandarin lyrics of the song were written by Lin Xi. Wong has also performed his own version of the song live several times.
In 1999, Wong co-founded the music production company People Mountain People Sea (人山人海). The company has produced and published albums not only for high-profiled pop singers like Cass Phang, Leslie Cheung, Faye Wong, Sandy Lam, Eason Chan, Nicholas Tse and Miriam Yeung but has also published works for indie musicians such as Jason Choi (蔡德才), Gaybird Leung (梁基爵), at17 and Pixel Toy. To celebrate the end of the millennium in 1999, Wong released an expansive compilation album Let’s Play Again in the Next Century (下世紀再嬉戲) which contained songs from his solo career and songs from the catalogue of Tat Ming Pair. An alternate version of the album was also released, entitled Let’s Play Again and Again in the Next Century (下世紀再再嬉戲).
In July 2000, Wong released an album of brand-new material titled In Broad Daylight (光天化日). The album contained the musical and lyrical work of Wong's usual partners such as Jason Choi (蔡德才), Lin Xi, and Yiu-fai Chow (周耀輝) but the album also contained contributions from others such as Zhang Yadong, Yu Yat-yiu (于逸堯), Kubert Leung, Chan Fai-young and Sandee Chan. The album won two awards at the Ultimate Song Chart Awards Presentation (叱咤樂壇流行榜頒獎典禮). The same year, Wong also released a collaboration album with Tsai Chin entitled Walking With Wings (花天走地). Wong won Best Alternative Artist at the first annual Chinese Music Media Awards (華語音樂傳媒大獎) in 2001.