Lure of the greasepaint: why academic chose life in spotlight as a Cantonese opera star
- Sam Chan Chak-lui knew what she wanted to do as a career when she was still a child and so began making plans to achieve it when she was only 10.
- Later she turned her back on her job as a university lecturer for a life on the stage – as a Cantonese opera artist, specialising in playing male protagonists.
“I wanted to work at the university so that I could earn a steady income to pay for my passion,” says Chan, 42, who began training her voice and improving her physical agility in order to perform Cantonese opera at the age of 10 – without her parents’ knowledge.
She was forced to borrow funds from a cousin to ensure what she was doing remained a secret – in the certain knowledge that, should her parents find out, they would disapprove of what she was doing.
“They wanted me to study something more academic,” says the former lecturer who has spent the entire academic career at Chinese University of Hong Kong from her bachelor studies. “And so I did, but my heart was still with opera.”
At this year’s 47th Hong Kong Arts Festival, Chan will perform in the legendary Tong Tik-sang’s Red Cherries and a Broken Heart, a classic story of self-reliance that flourished overseas among Chinese migrants in the early 20th century, on March 9, and the following day, in a series of vignettes from Pak Yuk-tong’s Three Big Trials, centred around legal justice.
Chan typically performs on Hong Kong stages more than 20 times a month – either at Yau Ma Tei Theatre, Ko Shan Theatre or Xiqu Centre, the US$346 million multi-theatre West Kowloon complex, which is the modern home for Chinese opera in the city.
