Profile | ‘The flowers were for me’: when Hong Kong actor Lau Ching-wan found fame, his belief in destiny and his 25 years with wife Amy Kwok
- At 17, Lau Ching-wan applied to drama school. A year after graduating he starred in a drama with Tony Leung Chiu-wai and Maggie Cheung, and he’s not looked back
- Often cast to play the tough guy, Lau has shown his talent for comedy and romances too. He has been married to former Miss Hong Kong Amy Kwok for 25 years
Problematic characters and fleeting relationships are common in show business, which is why Lau Ching-wan – sometimes credited as Sean Lau – seems like a breath of fresh air.
The down-to-earth Lau, who has had more best actor nominations in the Hong Kong Film Awards than anyone else, is known for being a faithful husband to former Miss Hong Kong Amy Kwok Oi-ming for 25 years – and has a spotless reputation and an illustrious career to boot.
Lau was 17 and working as a postman when his father suggested that he apply to join Hong Kong terrestrial broadcaster TVB’s one-year drama training programme. At the same time, three people at work asked him, “Why don’t you try out TVB’s acting class?” on three separate occasions.
Cherie Chung a screen goddess, the Marilyn Monroe of Hong Kong, fans said
“I was nobody, then everyone knew me,” Lau recalled in 2012. “People used to walk up to me at TVB’s entrance and ask if I could pass flowers to Tony Leung Chiu-wai; and now, the flowers were for me. That was the difference.”
Despite his success, Lau remains humble. “It’s really interesting how the script, the character and the acting together make up a special equation,” said Lau in the same interview. “I’d come to realise that my earlier success was owed to many external factors, and not just myself.”
Lau began to dabble in film in 1986, but maintained a strong presence on television until his success in the 1992 drama-thriller series The Greed of Man, after which he made the full switch to cinema.
Lau won his first best actor award in 2007 for his performance in the 2006 comedy drama My Name Is Fame, which detailed his character’s bitter pursuit of stardom in Hong Kong’s film industry.
In spite of his personal taste in film and tendency to be cast to play “tough guy” characters, Lau seems to have a tender interior.
He first met his wife, Kwok, on the set of the aforementioned The Greed of Man, which was his last television acting credit and her first acting gig after winning Miss Hong Kong in 1991.
Widely acknowledged as one of the most educated Miss Hong Kong winners, Kwok went to Hong Kong’s Sacred Heart Canossian College in Pok Fu Lam on Hong Kong Island before studying mechanical engineering at the University of Southern California in the US.
On their first date, Lau did not even have a car yet and Kwok drove to meet him in Tsim Sha Tsui, Kowloon. Lau said, “She asked me, ‘Why have you asked me here?’ I said, ‘I wanted to see you.’ I asked her afterwards what she thought of our first date, and she said, ‘I thought you needed something, perhaps to borrow money.’”
The pair married in 1998 and have kept a relatively low profile since. Kwok ceased acting in 2006. They were so low-profile that, in 2012, when Lau appeared in a video interview with the now-defunct Hong Kong newspaper Apple Daily, he was shopping for chicken in a Kowloon wet market and was credited as “citizen Mr Lau”.
In 2015, during his acceptance speech after winning best actor for his role in Overheard 3, Lau thanked Kwok for her support with a heartfelt message: “Every time when I drive a spaceship and fly somewhere in the universe, you always have a way to bring me back to Earth safely. Thank you.”
The two have no children. Lau was once quoted as saying: “My friends say that having a baby can bring a couple closer, but I say that we are already very close and don’t need to have a baby.”
Today, the relationship between Lau and Kwok is known to be one of the sweetest among Hong Kong’s celebrities. They are often seen dining out in low-key outfits.
Asked on a 2012 talk show what he admired most about Kwok, Lau said: “I really don’t know. People always ask me what kind of scripts I like – I don’t know, but I know when I see it. I think that’s how life is sometimes.”
When he was then asked if he believed in destiny, he answered simply: “I can’t not.”
Since his 1984 debut, Lau has been nominated for best actor 38 times at different awards shows and has won 14 times. He is widely regarded as one of the most talented actors of his generation.
