Chan Kiu Ying

Biography

Chan Kiu Ying is a Hong Kong television and film screenwriter, known as the "No. 1 screenwriter in Hong Kong". He was born on the Chinese mainland and spent his first seven years in his family's hometown of Xinhui, Guangdong Province, before moving with his family to a tong lau building in Tong Mei Road, Mong Kok, Kowloon. As a child, he listened to radio dramas and enjoyed writing and performing radio plays himself, though he did not pursue radio work due to dissatisfaction with his voice. In the 1960s, he joined the Hong Kong Youth Pen Association founded by a priest to encourage youth writing, and co-published a monthly literary magazine called "Wenshe Xian". After completing secondary school, he earned a diploma in journalism and communication from Chu Hai College in Hong Kong, then traveled to France where he worked as a dishwasher, spent 1974 in Japan on a working holiday, and returned to Hong Kong to work as an assistant editor at the film magazine "Silver World" in Tsim Sha Tsui. In 1977, he joined the TVB screenwriter training course after being selected by Lau Tin Chi based on a comedic piece he wrote, initially writing scripts for comedy sketches in the variety show "Enjoy Yourself Tonight". He moved to the drama department in 1979 and began writing television series scripts, with his most notable works during this period being the long-running series "The Bund" and "The Legend of the Condor Heroes", which gained great popularity. He was promoted to Creative Director of the TVB Drama Department following the success of his long-format series. He left television in April 1985 to join Hong Kong's D&B Films as creative director at the invitation of Tsun Kin Fan, where he also oversaw the company's screenwriter training program. He decided to leave television because he did not wish to spend his entire career in television, along with a desire to fulfill his cinematic aspirations. He left the company in 1987 and later returned to television work.