‘A sadness too great for words’: tributes to Ni Kuang, Hong Kong author and screenwriter, pour in from around the world

The last representative of a golden age of Hong Kong culture, says Singaporean lyricist Ng King Kang of writer Ni Kuang, who died on Sunday aged 87

Ni ‘enlightened our generation’s science fiction writers’, Taiwanese author Huai Guan writes. Film publications recall his scripts for martial arts classics

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Author, lyricist and columnist Ng King Kang (left) visiting the late writer Ni Kuang at the latter’s home in Hong Kong in 2014. “Ni’s books were the first science fiction I’d ever read,” Ng recalls. Photo: Ng King Kang

Published: 8:45pm, 4 Jul 2022Updated: 1:20pm, 29 Jul 2022

Tributes have continued to pour in from around the world for author Ni Kuang, who died in Hong Kong on Sunday at the age of 87.

Ni is remembered both for his vast literary output in different genres as well as for scripting more than 100 Shaw Brothers Studio martial arts films, many of which achieved cult status beyond Hong Kong’s borders.

Obituaries in film trade publications Variety and The Hollywood Reporter highlighted Ni’s role as scriptwriter of such classic films as The 36th Chamber of Shaolin (1978) and One Armed Swordsman (1967), starring Gordon Liu and Jimmy Wang Yu respectively, and his contribution to the scripts of two Bruce Lee movies, The Big Boss (1971) and Fist of Fury (1972).

“RIP Ni Kuang. He really is everywhere in the Shaw Brothers catalogue, to the point where I eventually started thinking of him as Shaw’s answer to Hammer staple Jimmy Sangster. It’s always a pleasure to spot Ni’s name in the credits,” tweeted New York film critic Simon Abrams.

Tenky Tin Kai-man, actor and spokesman of the Federation of Hong Kong Filmmakers, earlier revealing that Ni had died at home at 1pm on Sunday. The cause of death was skin cancer, according to Poon Yiu-ming, chief editor of Chinese-language Hong Kong newspaper Ming Pao Monthly.