Actor Charles Ho Kwok-wing
Australian Charles Ho Kwok-wing, 40, makes being a local police inspector, rich corporate manager and near-native Cantonese speaker look easy. Twenty years ago, he gave up his medical degree to pursue his dream of becoming a Cantonese actor. Now also a columnist for newspaper AM 730, he chats with Yvonne Young about his life, languages, acting and TV.
When I came to Hong Kong, I only bought a one-way ticket.
By accident, my first job in Hong Kong was teaching English. I didn’t know you could teach English and survive.
I came to Hong Kong to be a Cantonese singer.
When I first arrived in Hong Kong I lived at my friend’s house in Broadcast Drive. I had nothing to do so everyday I just walked around. One day I happened to walk down to the Coliseum, and bumped into some band people who were having a smoke at the backdoor. They recognized me as we met in Sydney’s China Town. So they invited me to watch the shows everyday, except for two nights, where I was the guest singer.
By chance, I got to work on a TVB drama series 18 years ago. I went to the studio and saw the lady in charge who gave me the script in Chinese. I sat there for five minutes and didn’t say a thing. I was petrified.
I said to myself: “I can’t be an idiot. If I don’t say anything and walk away, I’ll regret it for the rest of my life.” The first character I played was a rapist. It was a pretty big role. I said the two sentences really loud and I sucked.