People

Leung Kin-ping never set out to be an actor, then he spent 30 years in supporting roles at TVB and now the hit movie Ten Years has finally made him a star.

Writer-critic Tang Siu-wa explains why she has stopped sparring with words and promotes literature instead.

Cheung Kuan-tue, 92, looks back on her brief marriage, a war, and decades of domestic service as an amah or “mahjeh” in Guangzhou and Hong Kong.

Jeffrey Tam Chun-kit wanted to be a politician so he could help bring democracy to Hong Kong but his mother persuaded him to choose law instead. Now, the Oxford-trained lawyer from a Tuen Mun housing estate is a barrister known for defending pro-democracy causes and activists.

Time stands still in Sammy Photo Studio in Yau Ma Tei, where photographer Lam Kwok-shing has spent decades capturing precious family moments on film for generations of customers.

Chef Vicky Lau Wan-ki is the first female chef to own a Michelin-starred restaurant in Hong Kong, and she's also been named Asia's best female chef. But the 35-year-old owner of the Tate Dining Room and Bar took an unusual path to success; she has a background in design and graphic communications.

Doctor Au Yiu-kai has braved Taliban attacks and Israeli airstrikes during this time as a volunteer physician in conflict and disaster areas across the world. None of these dangers has discouraged him from serving the sick and wounded. But here the head of the Occupy Central with Love and Peace (OCLP) volunteers’ medical team, he tells Varsity about his heartbreak over Hong Kong.

As an exchange student, Egyptian poet Sayed Gouda witnessed the historic Tiananmen Square protests and crackdown of 1989. Now, as a Hong Kong resident, he once again found himself living under Beijing’s shadow after the Umbrella Movement broke out. Gouda talks to Varsity about his unforgettable memories of Beijing and his insights on the Occupy Central Movement.

Today, lecturer Li Chun-hong teaches humanities to university students, but things could have turned out very differently. Li spent some of his childhood years shoplifting, fighting and hanging out with triads. Education turned his life around and now Li hopes he can help other young lives.

From Club 64 to Club 71, Grace Ma Lai-wah has run two bars named after significant political incidents that have witnessed more than a quarter of a century of Hong Kong history. Despite all the struggles and changes in the city and her life, Ma has always managed to find a way to survive.