Before Jet Li, this actor played Wong Fei-hung in 80 films and made the martial arts legend a household name

Actor Kwan Tak-hing portrayed Wong Fei-hung in so many films that he would sometimes use the identity of the legendary martial artist in public

The world’s longest running film series was a hit with Hong Kong movie goers for its accurate fighting scenes and authentic depictions of Cantonese culture

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Kwan Tak-hing (front) in the title role in The Story of Wong Fei-hung, Part One: Wong Fei-hung’s Whip that Smacks the Candle (1949). The actor played the legendary martial artist in 19th century Guangdong (then Canton) no less than 80 times over the course of 32 years.

Published: 5:15am, 4 Oct 2020Updated: 7:24pm, 5 Oct 2020

Most film fans today tend to associate Jet Li Lianjie with legendary martial artist Wong Fei-hung, after Li’s career-defining performances as the real-life character in the works of Tsui Hark during the 1990s. But to earlier generations, martial arts expert and actor Kwan Tak-hing, who died in 1996, is the embodiment of Wong Fei-hung.

Kwan – who reportedly looked like Wong and shared his serene disposition – portrayed him in around 80 films, and the actor became so synonymous with the character that he would sometimes identify himself as Wong in public.

The Wong Fei-hung film series, which began in 1949, is the longest film series in the world. Kwan portrays Wong, a martial artist who lived in Guangdong, then called Canton, in southern China in the second half of the 19th century, and was also a well-regarded doctor and herbalist, as an honourable man steeped in Confucian values. Wong would only resort to fighting when there was no other option.

“Wong fights for justice and Confucian values,” says film expert Roger Garcia, former director of the Hong Kong International Film Festival. “He is a hero of the common people, and that helped his popularity among audiences, especially in Hong Kong, where viewers were mainly working class.”

Wu Pang, who directed 57 Wong Fei-hung films, got the idea for the film series while reading a newspaper article about Wong on the Star Ferry that plies Hong Kong’s Victoria Harbour. He went to great lengths to ensure that the martial arts scenes were authentic.

Kwan Tak-hing (left) in a still from Wong Fei-Hung's Battle with the Five Tigers in the Boxing Ring (1958).