Published : 2025-11-24
On 24 November 2004, James Wong Jim (黃霑), one of Hong Kong's most renowned cross-media creators and producers, passed away from lung cancer at the age of 63.
Wong Jim's birth name was Wong Jum-sum (黃湛森), his courtesy name was Yik Kan (亦芹), and his English name was James Wong. He also had pen names such as Lau Kit (劉杰), Luk Long (陸郎), But Man Jim (不文霑), Jim Siu (詹嘯), Kau Lau (久流), and Tit Syu (鐵樹).
Wong Jim was a renowned Hong Kong cultural figure who excelled at lyric writing, music composition, scoring, column writing, filmmaking, advertisement creation and stage performance.
He, along with Louis Cha Leung-yung (金庸), Ni Kuang (倪匡) and Chua Lam (蔡瀾), was acclaimed as one of the "Four Great Talents of Hong Kong"; and together with Ni Kuang and Chua Lam, he was also known as one of the "Three Great Pundit of Hong Kong".
Wong Jim was born in Guangzhou, the sixth of eight siblings. Moving to Hong Kong with his family as a child, Wong Jim grew up and was educated in Hong Kong.
From the 1950s, Wong Jim was active in the cultural and entertainment industries. He started to submit articles to newspapers at the age of 12 and later becoming a professional writer, with his columns and essays in newspapers and periodicals amounting to over 10 million words.
Wong's musical tastes were extremely broad. He actively absorbed and incorporated everything from Western classical, European and American pop songs, and Indian music to modern avant-garde music, and actively passed on the heritage of Chinese opera culture.
Wong Jim created many popular musical works, such as the classics The Bund (《上海灘》), A Laughter in the Sea (《滄海一聲笑》), and Below the Lion Rock (《獅子山下》), which are still sung today. These earned him the prestigious title "Grandmaster of Pop Lyrics" and made him an icon of a generation of Hong Kong popular culture.
Wong Jim's life coincided with several important stages of Hong Kong's post-war development, and he had a major influence on promoting the development of Hong Kong's popular culture.
