Roman Tam Pak-sin (; 12 February 1945 – 18 October 2002), known professionally by his stage name Law Man (), was a Hong Kong singer. He is regarded as the "Grand Godfather of Cantopop".

Career

Born in Baise, Guangxi, China, with family roots in Guiping, Guangxi, he moved to

Guangzhou Guangzhou, Chinese postal romanization, previously romanized as Canton or Kwangchow, is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Guangdong Provinces of China, province in South China, southern China. Located on the Pearl River about nor ...

(Canton) in 1947 at the age of two. He later emigrated to Hong Kong in 1962 at the age of 17 because his mother fell ill and was only able to get better medical treatment in Hong Kong. He was poor and was only able to sleep with a sleeping bag and a radio on the floor of a banking building. His musical interests started from listening to the radio. After forming a short-lived band known as Roman and the Four Steps to emulate

The Beatles The Beatles were an English Rock music, rock band formed in Liverpool in 1960. The core lineup of the band comprised John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. They are widely regarded as the Cultural impact of the Beatle ...

and winning a talent contest in Japan, he became a contract singer under studios term at

TVB Television Broadcasts Limited (TVB; zh, t=電視廣播有限公司) is a television broadcasting company based in Hong Kong. The company operates five free-to-air terrestrial television channels in Hong Kong, with TVB Jade as its main Canton ...

. He briefly switched to

Asia Television Asia Television Limited (, also known as ATV) is a digital media and broadcasting company in Hong Kong. Established as the first television service in Hong Kong as Rediffusion Television () on 29 May 1957, it shifted to terrestrial televis ...

in the early 1990s. His stage name was actually a

transliteration Transliteration is a type of conversion of a text from one script to another that involves swapping letters (thus '' trans-'' + '' liter-'') in predictable ways, such as Greek → and → the digraph , Cyrillic → , Armenian → or L ...

of his English name, Roman. During the 1990s, he accepted many budding singers as his students. Some of whom that became famous included Shirley Kwan, Joey Yung and Ekin Cheng. He had sung many well-known solos and duets for various TV series including '' Below the Lion Rock'', and the famous 1983 TVB TV series '' The Legend of the Condor Heroes'' main theme duet with Jenny Tseng. Tam was also known for bending and breaking gender norms, with a "flamboyant" on-stage persona. He was the first Hong Kong pop star to perform in drag and was featured in a magazine while posing in the nude. Although the latter was controversial at the time, Tam "'got away with his on-stage flamboyance because of his off-stage discretion' and was accepted 'in mainstream Chinese culture at a time when homosexuality was outlawed'". He never married and maintained a high degree of privacy in his personal life. Tam officially retired in 1996, but continued to perform occasionally with other artists. On 19 October 2002, Tam died in Hong Kong at Queen Mary Hospital from liver cancer at the age of 57. Then- Secretary for Home Affairs Patrick Ho expressed his condolences.

References

External links

Applauding Hong Kong Pop Legend: Roman Tam – About the collection
Hong Kong Memory {{DEFAULTSORT:Tam, Roman 1945 births Cantonese people 2002 deaths Musicians from Guangzhou Singers from Guangdong Singers from Guangxi People from Baise Deaths from liver cancer 20th-century Hong Kong male singers Cantopop singers Hong Kong Mandopop singers Hong Kong male film actors Hong Kong male television actors Hong Kong LGBTQ singers Gay singers Hong Kong gay men