:''This is a Chinese name; the family name is To.'' Raymond To Kwok-Wai () (born 13 August 1946) is a Hong Kong contemporary

dramatist A playwright or dramatist is a person who writes plays. Etymology The word "play" is from Middle English pleye, from Old English plæġ, pleġa, plæġa ("play, exercise; sport, game; drama, applause"). The word "wright" is an archaic English ...

, screenwriter and film director, with ancestry from

Panyu Panyu, alternately romanized as Punyu, is one of 11 urban districts of the prefecture-level city of Guangzhou, the capital of Guangdong Province, China. It was a separate county-level city before its incorporation into modern Guangzhou in 200 ...

Guangzhou Guangzhou (, ; ; or ; ), also known as Canton () and alternatively romanized as Kwongchow or Kwangchow, is the capital and largest city of Guangdong province in southern China. Located on the Pearl River about north-northwest of Hong Kon ...

, China. Raymond's broadcast script was once broadcast in New York by Chung Wah Commercial Broadcast. He has created more than 60 stage plays, including "Born in Hong Kong", "Boundless Movement", "Dark Tales", "Fuso passing", "I Have a Date with Spring", "Mad Phoenix", "Walled City", "Love Avalokitesvara "," Miss Du ", " Forever"," Adventure, "," Broadcasting Lovers "and" Sentimental Journey "etc. Among those works, "I am a Hong Konger" was tour performed in Europe. In addition, Raymond has written "Under the Roof", "

Below the Lion Rock ''Below the Lion Rock'' () is a TV show about the lives of Hong Kong citizens. It was broadcast five times, each forming its own series, from 1972 to 1979, 1984 to 1988, 1990, 1992 to 1995, 2006, 2014 to 2020. Each series was a collection of unrel ...

" and other popular series for

RTHK Radio Television Hong Kong (RTHK) is the public broadcasting service in Hong Kong. GOW, the predecessor to RTHK, was established in 1928 as the first broadcasting service in Hong Kong. As a government department under the Commerce and Econom ...

. Raymond is not only a prolific and exhaustive screenwriter. Besides, he is the composer and lyrics writer for the scripts, such as "Sentimental Journey", "In love with Sister Liu", etc.

Early life

Raymond To has a sister, Mei Zi (formerly Duyan Zhi), who is an announcer. During his childhood, Raymond had the reputation of being a "broadcasting prodigy" after he participated in Radio Television Hong Kong (RTHK) and

Rediffusion Television Rediffusion Television (RTV) was the first television station in Hong Kong, making it both the first British colony and the first predominantly ethnically Chinese city to have television.Kitley, Philip. 003(2003). Television, Regulation and ...

programmes. In his early years, he performed in movies including "The affairs of Miss Ping" and "The Fatherless Son". In 1971 and 1982, Raymond graduated from the Department of Geography at

University of Hong Kong The University of Hong Kong (HKU) (Chinese: 香港大學) is a public research university in Hong Kong. Founded in 1887 as the Hong Kong College of Medicine for Chinese, it is the oldest tertiary institution in Hong Kong. HKU was also the fi ...

and the

Hong Kong Institute of Education The Education University of Hong KongUniversity title ...

Career

After graduation, he became a high school teacher at Ho Lap College and was responsible for the school drama club, one of the four kings -

Andy Lau Andy Lau Tak-wah (; born 27 September 1961) is a Hong Kong actor, singer-songwriter and film producer. He has been one of Hong Kong's most commercially successful film actors since the mid-1980s, performing in more than 160 films while maint ...

, being one of his students. At this time, he was already an amateur writer. He began his second career as a professional playwright when, in 1979, his short play "Ball" was selected by the Hong Kong Repertory Theatre for excellence in script writing. and for which he was invited to participate in the performance of "Rickshaw Boy/Camel Xiangzi". On 3 June 1995, Raymond To, together with Ko Tin Lung and

Clifton Ko Clifton Ko (; born 6 August, 1958) is a Hong Kong film director, actor, producer and scriptwriter. Background Clifton Ko graduated from Kwun Tong Maryknoll College, and entered TV and film industry in late 1970s, firstly worked with director C ...

founded the "Spring Stage Production Company". In addition to being the theatre company's playwright, he is also an artistic director. Although the majority of his original work is for the stage, some have been adapted for film, with To being responsible for many of these adaptions. Raymond To was elected as the president of the Hong Kong Film Writers' Guild. During 2000, Raymond directed his own work for the first time, "Forever and Ever", to much acclaim.

Filmography (1956–2005)

Awards and nominations

References

* * * (Chinese Web.) *

External links

*
HK cinemagic entry
Living people Hong Kong dramatists and playwrights Hong Kong screenwriters Hong Kong film directors 1946 births {{HongKong-film-director-stub