Street Talk: Wong Man-chun

HK Magazine: How does it feel like to scare people in haunted houses?
Wong Man-chun: I would say it pleases me. I ain’t mental or a pervert, but as an actor I’m happy that I get the reaction I want. In particular, I enjoy using various methods to make visitors happy, scared or even frantic. Their reactions are very satisfying to me.

HK Magazine: What’s the key to scaring the hell out of people?
WC: It’s very easy to frighten them as long as you perform at the right moment. Poses and gestures don’t matter that much. A performer asked me this question, so I demonstrated for him: There were a bunch of people queuing outside a haunted house. I walked up to a girl silently and whispered “hello” in her ears. She screamed and jumped. It’s all about timing.

HK: Tell us your most unforgettable experience.
WC: It happened in my first year acting as a ghost. Visitors often get scared and drop things. One time, a girl dropped her glasses, so I picked them up and handed it to her. Thinking that I was scaring her again, she became even more frightened and ran away. I had to run through three rooms after her until I grabbed her arm and said, “Your glasses.” Even as I said that, I was still using my spooky in-character voice. Horrified, she took them back hastily and sprinted away. As I think back, I was green and didn’t know when to get out of character.

HK: Have you ever got scared back by visitors?
WC: Luckily, never. But it’s hard to scare us anyway. During the parade, some visitors like to imitate our poses or voices. We performers work as a team and discuss how to react, so you could say we’re mentally prepared. After all, it’d be quite embarrassing if we got frightened.

HK: Have you had any physical contacts with visitors, like being hit or harassed?
WC: Some visitors do get so excited that they forget we ain’t ghosts but humans. They may greet us by hitting us, and sometimes it does hurt. But on the other hand, we understand that they do this since they’re having fun and think it’s a great performance. It’s our policy that “ghosts” can’t have bodily contact with humans, but we can still take a picture with them if they ask, depending on the situation. It hurts my ears because we hear girls screaming all day long.

HK: Do you still remember your first performance?
WC: I played a wizard in a black gown, with a fake nose and black and white lines on my face, cooking some kind of medicine in a cauldron. Maybe because I did a great job I was then told to play another role. At the entrance [to a haunted house], there was a drawer that would open automatically. People got scared by it and walked closer to the wall, so I would take the chance to appear suddenly right in front of their faces! It’s really funny to see them terrified.