Wong Wing-sze
Local actress and playwright Wong Wing-sze has been writing plays since 2001 and won Best Script at the 2011 Hong Kong Drama Awards for her play, “The Truth About Lying.” Ahead of her latest show, “Our Best of Youth in Cambrian,” She talks to Leanne Mirandilla about her inspirations, her unique brand of dark humor and what it’s like to both act in and write plays.
HK Magazine: Are your plays mostly about Hong Kong people?
Wong Wing-sze: The characters in “Our Best of Youth in Cambrian” are mainly born in the 70s. I was born in the 70s, and when I was studying in secondary school the British government still ruled Hong Kong and [everyone was] learning English. I remember when I was eight or nine years old, my school had different classes, with two English classes and three Chinese classes. We really made an effort to get into the English class to be more elite.
You had to be the best student. That’s how you could do something in society. But after we worked so hard, when we grew up, society changed and everything [we worked for] was gone. Hong Kong was handed back to China, and we were left behind. We should be doing something great, but we were born at the wrong time, so we say “oh, nobody expects us to do anything, so we have parties.”
HK: Your plays sound quite depressing, but somehow humorous as well. Do you usually mix humor with sadness in your writing?
WWS: Comedy actually comes from tragedy. When you’re experiencing a disaster, it’s really a tragedy, but if you get over it and look back, it’s kind of funny. When attending a funeral, it’s really sad, but my first instinct is to laugh and make a joke.
“My Grandmother’s Funeral” [another of Wong’s plays] is a very good example of black humor—it’s about death, but it’s also about laughter. In this play, the story starts with the main character’s mother dying in a really violent way, and then her ghost always appears when [her daughter and her friends] are having parties.
Everybody will die. If death is the final station, then no matter what you go through [on the way], it’s not a big problem. It ends up that you experience all kinds of bitterness and pain, but if you can get over it, then you can help the people who are in that same situation and tell them it’s okay. It’s a part of life you have to experience. You won’t know what life is about if you’re always so happy.
HK: How do you usually get inspiration for your plays?
WWS: I always write something taking reference from my own life. “The Truth About Lying” is about divorce, and I come from a divorced family. When I was a kid, I didn’t know what divorce was because nobody got divorced. The first people to tell me what it was were my parents. I was kind of shocked. When I wrote this play I was very depressed. I felt like I was in the sea and I didn’t have anything to grab onto. I was just floating.