Loong Kim Sang

Loong Kim Sang (born 4 November 1944) is a Cantonese opera performer. She is widely regarded as a pioneer in playing “ Wenwusheng” lead male roles, combining literary opera and martial arts scenes.

Childhood and training

Loong was born Lee Pui Sang on 4 November 1944 (Lunar 19 September 1944), the fourth child of a teacher father and a homemaker mother, who had one son and seven daughters. In 1960, against the wishes of her father and brother but with the financial support of her mother and sisters, she applied to train as a dancer with the Sin Fung Ming troupe created by her mentor Yam Kim-fai and Bak Sheut Sin. She and 21 other finalists were selected for training from 1,000 candidates.龍劍笙 - 細說當年 創藝文化企業有限公司出版 (Publisher:Chuang Yi Wen Hua Qi Ye You Xian Gong Si)

In 1963 the Chu Fengming Opera Troupe was founded and Loong was one of 12 of the finalists invited back to learn Huadan and Xiaosheng roles. From 1968 to 1970 she shared the stage with Yam Kim-fai and debuted in 1969 "Farewell, My Husband". Loong was recognized as promising during the late 1960s and 1970s, and acted in various types of Cantonese opera as male leads in full versions with several female leads as co-stars.

Loong work and studied under Yam's tutelage for several years. In 1972 when Yam was invited to perform in Vietnam, Loong went in her place.跟著她「吃飯」的人可不少 - 呂大呂
戲迷情人任劍輝 轉自1973年12月1日出版《大成》第一期 In 1973 she made her home debut in Hong Kong with the Chor Fung Ming (Young Phoenix) Cantonese Opera Troupe ( 雛鳳鳴).Maybe The Cantonese Opera Diva
01 January 2016 Australia o
舞台下的龍劍笙
14 November 2015 Hong Kong戲曲視窗：重視流派有助粵劇承傳 2010-11-02
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Early career

Loong performed nine times for a week in 1973 and in a total of 11 weeks in 1973/74. Investors and theatre managers would hire the troupe and, if they proved to be profitable, extend their season. Troupes were expected to perform a large repertoire at very short notice. From 1973 to the early 1990s, Loong performed in over 50 well-known plays, usually one or two titles a day. These might be requested only the day before by theatre owners, and on overseas tours patrons might send requests written on a beverage napkin.

Having learnt the essential basics like ending rhyme
2010年12月21日【文滙報】 韻腳 in the decade of training from 1960 to 1970, Loong could honor new requests without even a day's notice in the evening by studying the manuscript overnight and rehearsing in the afternoon. This was the only way to survive extension after extension since repeating of titles was not acceptable to audiences, except for a small number of popular ones during first overseas tour in Vietnam.江雪鷺是以「雛鳳鳴劇團」六、七十年代開山戲《辭郎州》和《英烈劍中劍》著名的刀馬旦，《戲曲之旅》
第109期 34-37頁、
第110期 32-33頁、
第111期 28-31頁、
第112期 34-37頁、
第115期 23頁、
第116期 30-31頁、
第125期 28-29頁。
淡出舞台多時，身懷優質演藝細胞的江雪鷺�
江雪鷺 的新搞作 2006年《戲曲之旅》第50期第16至17頁
文武全才江雪鷺，《戲曲之旅》第134期 106-109頁
第十一期《大學線�

Thus in 1975 a planned 21-day Singapore trip was extended to 66 days (77 shows).

Historical overseas tours

*1972, Her first overseas tour was in Vietnam, doing more than over 40 shows in 37 days, at a theatre in Cholon, Ho Chi Minh City.
*1975, SE Asia, 106 shows in 91 days, at Ketra Ayers People's Theatre in Singapore and elsewhere. Deputy Prime Minister Goh Keng Swee invited the troupe to attend the celebration of the tenth Singapore National Day.
*1976, SE Asia, 117 shows in 102 days: Loong's troupe returned to Singapore in 1976 because there were requests for more performances after 77 sold-out performances the year before.
*1978, United States and Canada, 89 shows in 71 days.A rightful place in opera front, The Straits Times, 11 June 1981, Page 4
*1982, Loong was invited to perform for the Christmas season by the Caesars Palace casino in Las Vegas. This followed the in stage success of '' The Story of Emperor Li''. This was a theatrical adaptation of a failed 1968 film, '' Tragedy of the Poet King''. Loong hired Yip Shiu-Tak ( 葉紹德) to adapt it for the stage.
*1984 North America tour, the Mayor of New York, Ed Koch, honored the troupe she led just as Mei Lanfang had been honored in the 1930s after the performance at the Sun Sing Theatre.

Film

Loong made only four films, including three remakes of works by Yam.梨園青黃不接 記者:曾錦玲/黃渭瑜 編輯:陳綺娜
第十一期《大學線》

Sabbatical and return, 1992-2014

On 10 March 1992 Loong announced her retirement and moved to Canada.Women Pioneer in Hong Kong, population Seven million, the Debut guest 七百萬人的先鋒
07 April 2012 Hong Kong "獻醜不如藏拙" - Loong's motto A number of factors played a role in her decision. In 2012 and 2014, Loong disclosed that before her retirement she had been in poor health, particularly since the death of her mentor Yam in 1989.阿刨夢中見任姐 師徒生死相分
【明報專訊】2014.10.09 發表 In her later years Yam had advised Loong to consider retiring because of the lack of good new scripts. She did not want Loong to simply continue performing legacy works to make a living.牡丹亭來的男人
周耀輝
原發表於1990年3月23日《信報》文化版。 By the time she retired Loong was exhausted from close to 150 performances per year.

Many of the people she had worked closely with in her earlier career were no longer with her by 1992. Two Chu brothers were musicians who had composed scores for Yam as well as for Loong herself, died in 1981 and 1985. Two associates from her dance class of 1960 moved on in 1988 when her godfather Luo Pinchao also left China for the United States. Other veterans of the group, including Lang Chi Bak, also left or retired.

In November 2004, in commemoration of 15th anniversary of her passing, her mentor Yam Kim Fai, Loong returned to the stage. Her work from 2005 onwards received great critical acclaim戲曲視窗：有聲粵劇歷史 2011-01-04
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and Loong remains the Cantonese Opera performer with the best box-office record.

From September 2005 to September 2008 Loong gave 80 charity performances to full houses (mostly full versions of two titles) in Hong Kong and Macau. Despite having undergone keyhole surgery just two months before performances started Loong took on a very demanding iconic role as male lead in Di Nü Hua.戲曲視窗：粵劇導演不懂粵劇 2010-06-15
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2008年12月16日【文滙報】 an

2010年05月04日【文滙報】

In 2009, for the 60th anniversary of the People's Republic of China
a series of celebrations were held in Hong Kong
Loong was invited as one of two special guests to perform in the Hong Kong Coliseum

i
a Cantonese opera gala to celebrate National Day

In August 2010, when a new manuscript was sent to her in Canada, Loong replied within couple of days that she had no plans to return to the stage.

Since 2014

In 2014, Loong shared stage for the first time with some new "love interests" to commemorate the quarter of a century since the passing of her mentor Yam. The title of this event in Chinese was "Ren Yi Sheng Hui Nian Long Qing"
任藝笙輝念濃情
, a series of 25 shows as a tribute to her mentor Yam's iconic roles on stage.

The press praised the effort in 2014 and called for continuation of opportunities in the future for other up-and-coming performers. Loong responded with 16 shows in 2015/2016 at the Lyric Theatre, HKAPA, where all the performers except her were up-and-coming performers in main roles. The headline production in this series was “The Purple Hairpin�
龍劍笙:紫釵記全劇
."任腔" (1) Impression as per Eunice Lam 明周第2402期 林燕妮:聲含情 字含韻 (2) Mainly influenced by - Masculine traits (字字鏗鏘) of Yam style(任腔) is one of the more famous exponent of Kwai Ming Yeung style. (3) Detail descriptio
戲曲視窗：任劍輝唱片曲知多少？2013-01-15
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The Peony Pavilion (Chinese: 龍劍笙 - 牡丹亭驚夢全劇) was staged in 2017/8 to complete the 2014 events in remembrance of mentor Yam. In 2019 Loong staged 13 performances of “Di Nü Hua” (28 November - 14 December) to commemorate 30 years (1989-2019) since the passing of mentor Yam Kim Fai.

Accolades

*1982 Gold Disc Award1982 Gold Disc Award
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* 1990 Artists of the Year Awards in acting: Best Actor Award by the Hong Kong Artists Alliance.
* 2011 IFPI awards: (credited as Lung Kim Sheng), Award for Excellent Contribution to Cantonese Opera IFPI (香港粵劇貢獻大獎).
*2012 IFPI awards: (credited as Lung Kim Sheng), DVD "Ren Qu Sheng Yun" () and "Long Qing Shi Yi Ban Shi Ji" (龍情詩意半世紀).
*2015 IFPI awards: (credited as Lung Kim Sheng), received recognition for her effort to remember her mentor Yam Kim Fai and to bring up-and-coming performers onto stage in 2014.
*2016 IFPI awards: (credited as Lung Kim Sheng), DVD "Zi Chai Ji (Quan Ju)" 紫釵記(全劇)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Loong, Kim Sang
1944 births
20th-century Hong Kong actresses
21st-century Hong Kong actresses
20th-century Hong Kong women singers
21st-century Hong Kong women singers
Hong Kong Cantonese opera actresses
Living people
Hong Kong film actresses