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A treasure trove of Hong Kong theatre: Gift of personal archives by Dr Chung King-fai
31 Jul 2025
Theatre performance is all about being in the moment. Given the fleeting nature of live performances, this makes chronicling the production records and materials all the more important. They not only preserve the memories of the work on stage and behind the scenes, but also bring to life the history of theatre, promoting education and research in the performing arts.
Dr Chung King-fai, known as the “King of Drama” in Hong Kong, is an acclaimed actor, director, television producer and theatre educator. Throughout his illustrious career spanning over half a century, he has built a personal collection of records and files related to the theatrical art. Recently, his longstanding association with HKBU culminated in a gift to the University, comprising over 200 items from his personal archives, which will be kept in the permanent collection in the HKBU Library.
Dr Chung has been tirelessly driving the development of theatre in Hong Kong, with theatre education particularly dear to his heart. He was a full-time Assistant Lecturer at the Hong Kong Baptist College (predecessor of HKBU), where he was involved in the establishment of Hong Kong’s first drama course in tertiary institutions. He also advised the College’s Dramatics Club and directed several groundbreaking translated productions, including Death of a Salesman, the first translated American production in the city. After transitioning into the television and broadcasting industry, he continued to teach drama part-time at the College, bringing his teaching journey with HKBU to a total of 23 years. Passionate about theatre education, Dr Chung served as the Founding Dean of the School of Drama of the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts for 18 years, where he played a pivotal role in fostering local professional theatre training.
The extraordinary collection gifted to HKBU comprises play and television scripts, translation manuscripts, production files, house programmes, photographs, news clippings and personal records from the 1950s to 2010s. It also includes records from many of Dr Chung’s major theatrical productions, such as Our Town (1965), A Hatful of Rain (1965), The Glass Menagerie (1967) and How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying (1981), showcasing Dr Chung’s contribution to the local theatre scene by introducing contemporary drama overseas to the Hong Kong audience as early as the 1960s.
In addition, Dr Chung also donated several scrapbooks containing theatre columns and reviews he has written for local newspapers. These archives not only help to pass on Dr Chung’s wealth of experience in stage production and creative insights, but also provide an invaluable resource for research on the development of drama and performing arts in Hong Kong, especially during the golden era of amateur drama groups and university theatre productions in the 1960s and 1970s.
The University Library expressed its heartfelt gratitude to Dr Chung for his generous gift. Mr Christopher Chan, University Librarian, said: “Dr Chung has selflessly shared the fruits of his artistic career with all those who love theatre. The Library’s Special Collections and Archives is committed to preserving and promoting this unique and precious collection, fostering the use of local theatre archives for research, and continuing Dr Chung’s mission of promoting the theatrical arts and education.”
