Mainland Chinese stars who made it big in Hong Kong: from action film icons Jet Li and Donnie Yen to Cantopop royals Leon Lai and Faye Wong

Over the last few decades, Hong Kong’s entertainment industry has produced many icons who will go down in history. TVB’s golden age in the 1980s propelled a generation of now timeless actors and singers to fame. Then there’s the Hong Kong film industry, the world’s third-largest film exporter for decades behind India and the US, rightfully recognised as the “Hollywood of the East”. Finally, many Hong Kong singers helped popularise Canto-pop across Asia and became some of the region’s most widely celebrated stars in the process.

Born in Suzhou in 1965, Carina Lau subsequently moved to Hong Kong with her parents in 1980. She successfully entered TVB’s prestigious performing arts training programme which produced other famous Hong Kong actors like Stephen Chow and Tony Leung, now her husband. In 2011, she bagged the best female actress award at the 30th Hong Kong Film Awards with her performance in Detective Dee and the Mystery of the Phantom Flame.

Leon Lai, one of the four “Heavenly Kings of Hong Kong”, alongside Andy Lau, Jacky Cheung and Aaron Kwok, was born in Beijing in 1966. His climb to fame in Hong Kong came after he was crowned runner-up in the fifth season of the TVB International Chinese New Talent Singing Championship. Subsequently, he made a name for himself in both the film and music industries, starring in numerous TVB dramas and holding a historic run of 10 shows at Hong Kong Coliseum for his KAO Leon Live show in 1992.