Magnum opus built on old school ties

It is Sunday morning, and several of Hong Kong's most prominent figures from the worlds of business, medicine, law and local government are out of bed much earlier than they would have liked and gathered in a school hall.

Some sit on small school chairs and at low desks, looking like oversized children. Others are up on stage at the far end of the hall, repeating a movement over and over again. They have met like this, every Sunday, for the past six months.

It is an unlikely scene dominated by an unlikely figure - a middle-school science teacher called Wong Chin-wah. Some of the territory's most powerful people hang on to Wong's every word. For many, this is something they first did as children when, as Wah Yan College students, they sat in Wong's class.

This week, Wong and his eclectic cast will present what, thanks to him, has become a Hong Kong institution - Chinese opera in English for charity. The first one was staged 50 years ago with Wong in the lead role.

Since then, he and the Wah Yan Dramatic Society have performed more than 100 operas, the productions evolving to become very much Wong's shows. Not only is he director, producer and writer of the latest 50th anniversary opera, Three Times Engaged, Wong is also the only founder member of the society still to take an active role.

The idea behind Chinese opera in English is simple. 'Just after World War II, people from the United States and Europe were pouring into Hong Kong on business and, in their spare time, they went to the Chinese opera,' Wong recalls.