Wen-Chung Ku

A classically trained stage actor with origins dating back to the early days of Shanghai stage and motion pictures, Jiangsu native Ku Wen Chung like many others of his generation migrated south to British occupied Hong Kong during World War II to re-establish his career both as an actor and director primarily for Cantonese films as well as titles filmed in Mandarin and the Amoy dialect during the formative years of Hong Kong stage and screen. Ku is historically significant as a pioneering figure best described as Hong Kong's Lee Strasberg where he help found and led the Island colony's Southern Drama Group in 1961, his equivalent to New York's famed Actor's Studio for aspiring young Chinese thespians of his era. He was a hands-on instructor as well as dynamic figurehead with a bilingual curriculum that serves both a Cantonese and Mandarin dialect training division. The more notable graduates of Ku's academy included Hong Kong screen legends Lee Ching, Yueh Hua, Fang Yin, Chang Yi, Cheng Pei Pei, Lo Lieh, Lily Ho and Ti Lung.