Nam Hoi Sap Sa Long / Jiang Yuliao

Biography

Jiang Yuliao was born in 1910 in Guangzhou, the thirteenth son of the prominent late-Qing imperial scholar Jiang Kongyin. His mother died at childbirth, and he was raised by his aunt. He studied at the private "Lanzhai" school within the family estate, then attended multiple schools before enrolling in the University of Hong Kong to study medicine. He converted to Christianity in his youth due to the religious background of his schools. In 1924, he wrote his first Cantonese opera script by adapting Shakespeare's comedy "As You Like It" into "Han Ye Xiao Sheng." In 1929, he joined the famous "Jue Xian Sheng Troupe" created by opera star Xue Juexian, adopting the stage name "Nam Hoi Sap Sa Long." He rose to fame in 1930 with his work "Xin Sheng Lei Ying" (Heart's Voice, Tears' Shadow) in Guangzhou and Hong Kong. After the fall of Guangzhou in 1938, he fled to Hong Kong and had one daughter. In the 1940s, he wrote anti-Japanese Cantonese operas and was appointed wartime advisor by the Governor of Guangdong Province. After 1949, he lived between Nanhai County and Hong Kong, and was admitted to mental hospitals several times in the 1950s and 1960s. He wrote newspaper columns later collected in three volumes. He passed away in 1984.