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Cantopop (Chinese: 粵語流行音樂) is a colloquialism for "Cantonese popular music". It is sometimes referred to as HK-pop, short for "Hong Kong popular music". It is categorized as a subgenre of Chinese popular music within C-pop.^{[citation needed]} Cantopop draws its influence not only from other forms of Chinese music, but from a variety of international styles, including jazz, rock and roll, rhythm and blues, electronic music, Western pop music and others. Cantopop songs are almost invariably performed in Cantonese. Boasting a multinational fanbase especially in Southeast Asian countries such as Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, Thailand, and in the Guangdong province of mainland China, Hong Kong remains the most significant hub of the genre.^[1]

History[link]

1920s: Shanghai origins[link]

Western-influenced music first came to the Republic of China in the 1920s, specifically to Shanghai.^[2] Artists like Zhou Xuan (周璇) acted in films and recorded popular songs, and was possibly the first Chinese pop star.

In 1949 when the People's Republic of China was established by the Communist Party, one of the first actions taken by the government was to denounce pop music as pornography.^[2] Beginning in the 1950s, massive waves of immigrants fled Shanghai to destinations like North Point in Hong Kong.^[3] As a result, many first generation Cantopop artists and composers hail from Shanghai.^[2]

1960s: Cultural acceptance[link]

By the 1960s, Cantonese music in Hong Kong was still limited largely to traditional Cantonese opera and comic renditions of western music. Tang Kee-chan (鄧寄塵), Cheng Kuan-min (鄭君綿), and Tam Ping-man (譚炳文) were among the earliest artists releasing Cantonese records.

The baby boomer generation at the time preferred British and American exports, as well as Mandarin music. Western culture was at the time equated with education and sophistication,^[4] and Elvis, Johnny Mathis and The Beatles were popular.^[2]

Conversely, those who preferred Cantonese music were considered old-fashioned or uneducated. Cheng Kum-cheung and Chan Chai-chung (陳齊頌) were two popular Cantonese singers who specifically targeted the younger generation. Connie Chan Po-chu is generally considered to be Hong Kong's first teen idol, mostly due to her career longevity. Josephine Siao is also another artist of the era.

1970s: Rise of television and the modern industry[link]

The previous decade laid the ground for the creation of Hong Kong's new pop music. Many local bands mimicked British and American bands. Two types of local Cantonese music appeared in the market nearly concurrently in 1973: one type cashed in on the popularity of TVB's drama series based on the more traditional lyrical styles. The other was more western style music largely from Polydor Hong Kong. Notable singers from the era include Liza Wang and Paula Tsui.

Television was a new technological marvel, available mostly to the rich, and on-air content was highly valued and respected. Soap operas were needed to fill air time, and many popular Cantonese songs became TV theme songs.^[2] Around 1971, Sandra Lang, a minor singer who had never sung Cantopop before, was invited to sing the first Cantonese TV theme song "The Yuanfen of a Wedding that Cries and Laughs" (啼笑姻緣). This song was a collaboration between songwriters Yip Siu-dak (葉紹德) and the legendary Joseph Koo. It was ground-breaking and topped local charts.^[2] Other groups that profited from TV promotion included the Four Golden Flowers.

Samuel Hui, the lead singer of the band Lotus formed in the late 1960s, signed onto Polydor in 1972. The song that made him famous was the theme song to the movie Games Gamblers Play, also starring Hui.

The star of TV theme tunes was Roman Tam, whose singing earned much praise. Three of the most famous TV soap opera singers were Jenny Tseng, Liza Wang and Adam Cheng.^[2] The Wynners and George Lam also amassed a big fan base with their new style. Samuel Hui continued to dominate the charts and won the Centennial Best Sales Award in the first and second IFPI Gold Disc Presentations twice in a row in 1977 and 1978. Polydor became PolyGram in 1978.

1980s: Beginning of the Golden age[link]

During the 1980s, Cantopop soared to great heights with artists, producers and record companies working in harmony. Cantopop stars such as Anita Mui, Leslie Cheung, Alan Tam, Sally Yeh, Priscilla Chan, Sandy Lam, and Danny Chan quickly became household names. The industry effectively used Cantopop songs in TV dramas and movies, with some of the biggest soundtracks coming from timeless film such as A Better Tomorrow. In part, the success came from progressive economical development. Sponsors and record companies became comfortable with the idea of lucrative contracts and million-dollar signings. There are also Japanese songs with Cantonese lyrics.

The most successful Chinese female recording artist, "Queen of Mandarin songs" Teresa Teng also crossed over to Cantopop. She achieved in both artistic strides and great commercial success by her original Cantonese Hits under the Polygram Label in the early '80s. Jenny Tseng was also a notable addition from Macau.

As Cantopop gained large followings in Chinese communities worldwide, Hong Kong entrepreneurs' ingenious use of the then new Laserdisc technology prompted yet another explosion in the market.

1990s: Four Heavenly Kings era[link]

In the early 90s, the Cantopop stars Alan Tam, Leslie Cheung, Samuel Hui, Priscilla Chan, the songwriter Joseph Koo, and others either retired or lessened their activity. Chan left Hong Kong to pursue her studies at Syracuse University while the rest left Hong Kong amid the uncertainty surrounding the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989.

The "Four Heavenly Kings" (四大天王), namely Jacky Cheung, Andy Lau, Aaron Kwok and Leon Lai dominated music, and coverage in magazines, TV, advertisements and cinema.^[6][7]

New talents such as Beyond also emerged as contenders. Divas that should be mentioned are Sandy Lam, Sally Yeh and Faye Wong, whose popularity are, arguably comparable to the Four Heavenly Kings. Shirley Kwan also made her mark with 難得有情人

The tension and economic instability from the 1997 sovereignty handover also created a culturally challenging atmosphere for the industry. Establishment of Basic Law and language ordinances made the adoption of Mandarin official.^[8]

Twins at the height of the group's popularity

2000s[link]

At the turn of the century, Cantonese was still dominant in the domain of C-pop.^[9] The deaths of stars Leslie Cheung and Anita Mui in 2003 rocked the industry. A transitional phase also took place with many overseas-raised Chinese artists such as Nicholas Tse and Coco Lee gaining recognition. As a result Cantopop is no longer restricted to Hong Kong, but has become part of a larger Pan-Chinese music movement.

In 2005 Cantopop began a new upswing. Major companies that drove much of the HK segment included Gold Typhoon Music Entertainment (EMI, Gold Label), Universal Music Group, East Asia Entertainment & Amusic and Emperor Entertainment Group. Some of the most successful performers of the era include Joey Yung, Twins, Eason Chan, Miriam Yeung, Leo Ku, Janice Vidal. The new era also saw an explosion of bands such as at17, Soler, Sunboy'z, Hotcha, Mr. and Rubberband. In a new trend in promoting bands, many artists later end up going solo such as Stephy Tang, Kary Ng, Kenny Kwan and Renee Li. The decade have also been dubbed a People's singer era (親民歌星), as most performers promote frequently in public and are highly approachable. This is as opposed to the 90s and previous era Big-card singers (大牌歌星), who were impossible to approach.^[10]

A number of media-buzz incidents also took place. The largest was the Edison Chen photo scandal involving Edison Chen and a number of high-profile female celebrities like Gillian Chung, Bobo Chan and Cecilia Cheung caught in sexual acts with explicit photos uploaded online. The scandal garnered the attention of international media including CNN^[11] and MSNBC.^[12] and The Guardian.^[13] The scandal raised a number of questions regarding legal issues and netizen's online rights that went far beyond the usual music discussion. Other events include the street fight between Gary Chaw and Justin Lo.^[14] As well as Jill Vidal and Kelvin Kwan drug-trafficking to Japan.^[15]

2010s[link]

The first major award of the decade 09 JSG award was a highly controversial one with the on-going HKRIA tax case. The case was reportedly solved in early 2012 though. In January 2012, the 11 JSG award was again controversial since one of the biggest awards, Record of the Year, was handed to Raymond Lam with his unpopular song “Chok”. Some of the successful performers of the era are G.E.M., Ivana Wong, Sugar Club, Mag Lam, Alfred Hui, C AllStar and Khalil Fong.

Characteristics[link]

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Instruments and setups[link]

Early Cantopop was developed from cantonese opera music hybridized with western pop. The musicians soon gave up traditional Chinese musical instruments like zheng and erhu fiddle in favor of western style arrangements. Cantopop songs are usually sung by one singer, sometimes with a band, accompanied by piano, synthesizer, drum set, guitar, and bass guitar. They are composed under verse-chorus form and are generally monophonic. Practically all early Cantopop songs feature a descending bassline.

Lyrics[link]

	"Wait (等)" noicon A slow to medium tempo soundtrack by Danny Chan for the 1984 HK film "Merry Christmas" (聖誕快樂) "Half moon (月半彎)" noicon A transitional song from the golden age to the Four Heavenly kings era by Jacky Cheung "Sugar in the Marmalade" noicon A hybrid cantopop techno song by Leon Lai
Problems listening to these files? See media help.

Cantonese is a pitch sensitive tonal language. The word carries a different meaning when sung in a different relative pitch. Matching Cantonese lyrics to Western music was particularly difficult because the Western musical scale has 12 semi-tones. Through the work of pioneers like Sam Hui, James Wong and Lo Kwok Jim, those that followed have more stock phrases for reference. Cantonese lyricists play a great part in advancing Canto Pop.

Such a tonal constraint has been particularly blamed for the decline of Cantopop in the late 1990s, for source of creativity being "mined out". Its ramification includes interpretive constraint, where singers have less room for ad-lib change of pitch without sacrificing intelligibility. As a result, pitch change often encountered in western pop music becomes foreign to most of Hong Kong's singers.

Classical Chinese lyrics[link]

The first type is the poetic lyrics written in literary or classical Wenyan Chinese. In the past, Cantopop maintained the Cantonese Opera tradition of matching the musical notes with tones of the language. Relatively few Cantopop songs use truly colloquial Cantonese terms, and fewer songs contain lyrics. Songs written in this style are usually reserved for TV shows about ancient China. Since the 1980s, increasing numbers of singers have departed from this tradition, though some big names like Roman Tam stayed true to traditional techniques.

Modern Chinese lyrics[link]

The second type is less formal. The lyrics written in colloquial Cantonese make up the majority with compositions done in modern written Chinese. TV shows filmed under modern contexts will utilize songs written with these lyrics. Most songs share an overriding characteristic, in which every last word of a phrase is rhymed.

The following is an example from the song "Impression" (印象) by Samuel Hui. The last word of every phrase ends with '–oeng'.

Covers of foreign compositions[link]

Since the 1970s, Chinese cover versions of many Western music and Japanese traditional and pop compositions have been made. Historically the practice is done for business reasons of filling up albums and re-capitalizing on songs with a proven record. By definition hybrids are still considered Cantonese songs due to Cantonese lyrics, though the rights borrowed varies country to country. Songs like "Tomorrow sounds like today" (明日話今天) by Jenny Tseng, "Life to seek" (一生何求) by Danny Chan, "Snowing" (飄雪) by Priscilla Chan, and "Can't afford" (負擔不起) by Jade Kwan were originally composed outside of Hong Kong. Many critics disapprove this practice of covering foreign music as lack of originality, and many albums glory themselves as "cover-free".

Industry[link]

Cantopop stars[link]

From the inception of Cantopop to the late '80s, Hong Kong had seen many original talents develop into super stars, each with a unique singing style and an easily recognisable voice. Usually talent is secondary to the success of a Cantopop singer in Hong Kong. Most of the time, the image sells the albums, as it is one of the characteristic of mainstream music similarly mirrored in the United States and Japan. Publicity is vital to an idol's career, as one piece of news could make or break one's future. Almost all modern Cantopop stars go into the movie business regardless of their ability to act. They immediately expand to the Mandarin market once their fame is established, hence pure Cantopop stars are almost nonexistent. Outside of the music sales, their success can also be gauged by their income from various sources. For example, according to some reports, Sammi Cheng earned HK$46M (around US$6M) from advertisement and merchandise endorsements in one month alone.^[16] Many artists however begin with financial hardships. For example Yumiko Cheng owed her company thousands of dollars. Others include Elanne Kong crying in public with only HK$58 left.^[17]

Labels[link]

PolyGram, EMI, Sony, Warner and BMG were established in Hong Kong since the 1970s. Local record companies such as Crown Records (娛樂唱片), Wing Hang Records (永恆), Manchi Records (文志) and Capital Artists in the past have each invested heavily and became successful local labels that competed well in the market. As TV drama themes lost favor in the mid-80s, market power soon drifted to the multi-national labels. Sales are tracked at the IFPI HK Annual Sales Chart.^[18]

Criticism[link]

Unoriginality[link]

Cantopop has been criticised as being bland and unoriginal, since most stars tend to sing songs with similar topics with emphasis on "maudlin love ballads". Even in its early form, Cantopop featured many songs edited or inspired by English or Cantonese opera songs, which persisted during the 1980s golden era.

In the late 1990s, there was a shortage of creative talent due to the rising demand for Chinese songs; meanwhile, China and Taiwan had nurtured their own local industries posing serious competition to Cantopop. Renowned legendary lyricist Wong Jim wrote his 2003 thesis on the subject.^[19]

One critic portrays the Cantopop industry in this period as "favoring smiling saccharine pap over actual substance" while Chinese academic Stephen Cheung described Cantopop as 'the worst thing to have come out of China since the plague'.^[20]

However, there are still many sideline musicians like Beyond (who emerged from the "band fever" of the 1960s) and Tat Ming Pair whose songs reflect the darker, less-expressed side of society.

Artists[link]

Male[link]

This list is incomplete; you can help by expanding it.

Female[link]

This list is incomplete; you can help by expanding it.

Bands[link]

• 24 Herbs

Major awards[link]

Cantopop radio stations[link]

See also[link]

• Music of Hong Kong
• Hong Kong musical tongue twister
• Hong Kong English pop
• Chinese hip hop
• J-pop

References[link]

External links[link]

• C-Pop Fantasie - Online resource for c-pop, providing lyrics, downloads, video shows, and more.
• Pop Saves Hong Kong, in Tofu Magazine #2
• Hong Kong Vintage Pop Radio^{[dead link]}
• www.hkmusic.cn: Cantopop song listings (in chinese)
• www.mysongspage.com, lyrics and chords for Cantonese, English & Mandarin songs.
• 香港50-80年代粵語流行曲唱片目錄 Disc index
• Come back to love blog
• Lee HC's 黑膠樂園 Disc index
• 香港樂壇25年的發展 article
• [音乐评论][粤语流行四十年]

This article contains Chinese text. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of Chinese characters.

Andy Lau 劉德華
Andy Lau being interviewed at the 29th Hong Kong International Film Festival (2005).
Chinese name	劉德華 (Traditional)
Chinese name	刘德华 (Simplified)
Pinyin	Liú Déhuá (Mandarin)
Jyutping	Lau4 Dak1 Waa4 (Cantonese)
Ancestry	Xinhui, Guangdong
Born	(1961-09-27) 27 September 1961 (age 50)[1] Tai Po, Hong Kong
Other name(s)	Wah Zai (華仔) Lau Wah (劉華) Ngau Wah (牛華)
Occupation	Singer, actor, film producer, and presenter
Genre(s)	Cantopop, Mandopop
Instrument(s)	Singing
Label(s)	Capital Artist(1985) EMI(1986-1989, 2002-2004) Polygram(1990-1993) Warner Music(1993-1995) Music Impact(1995-2000) Multi-Talent(2000-2002) Ever Song (2004-2005) Focus Music (2005-2007) East Asia Music(2007-present)
Years active	1981 - present
Associated acts	Five Tiger Generals
Spouse(s)	Carol Chu 朱丽倩 (2008 - present)
Children	1 daughter
Official Website	www.andylau.com
Awards Hong Kong Film Awards Best Film 1998 Made in Hong Kong 2011 Gallants 2012 A Simple Life Best Actor 2000 Running Out of Time 2004 Running on Karma 2012 A Simple Life Best Supporting Actor 2008 Protégé Best Original Film Song 2003 Infernal Affairs Golden Bauhinia Awards Best Actor 2001 A Fighter's Blues Hong Kong Film Critics Society Awards Best Actor 2003 Running on Karma Golden Horse Awards Best Actor 2003 Infernal Affairs III 2011 A Simple Life Golden Rooster Awards Best Media Rooster for 2009 TVB Anniversary Awards My Most Memorable Male Leading Role 1999 The Return of the Condor Heroes Other awards Panasonic Awards 2007 1st Asian Film Awards 2007 Box Office Star of Asia Award

Andy Lau Tak-Wah MH, JP^[2] (born 27 September 1961) is a Hong Kong Cantopop singer, actor, and film producer. Lau has been one of Hong Kong's most commercially successful film actors since the mid-1980s, performing in more than 160 films while maintaining a successful singing career at the same time.^[3] In the 1990s, Lau was branded by the media as one of the Four Heavenly Kings of Cantopop (四大天王) along with Aaron Kwok, Jacky Cheung and Leon Lai.^[4]

Biography[link]

Andy Lau was born in Tai Po, Hong Kong, with origins in Xinhui, Guangdong. As a young boy Lau had to fetch water for his family up to eight times a day because their house was not equipped with plumbing.^[5] He later graduated from a Band One Secondary School, Ho Lap College in San Po Kong, Kowloon.^[6] He also practices Chinese calligraphy.^[7] Lau converted to Buddhism in the 1980s.^[8] He was raised in a nominally Buddhist household and is now a follower of the Lingyan Mountain Temple in Taiwan.^[9]

In 2008, Lau married Malaysian Chinese Carol Chu after 24 years of speculation over their relationship.^[10] The couple registered their marriage in Clark County, Nevada, in the United States.^[10] On 9 May 2012, Chu gave birth to his first child, a daughter.^[11]

Career[link]

Dramatic acting[link]

In 1981, Lau signed up for the artist training program offered by TVB, which is where his acting career began.^[1] The lead role which led to his initial popularity was in the 1982 TVB series The Emissary. In 1983, Lau's role as "Yang Guo" in the TVB series The Return of the Condor Heroes further increased his popularity. From then on, he would take on many of the lead roles in many of the TVB series.

In September 1983, TVB was looking to increase their ratings in competition with Korea and Japan for the best variety show. The station then created the show TVB All-star challenge (星光熠熠勁爭輝) featuring almost the entire lineup of the most popular actors and singers at the time.^[12] Lau along with Tony Leung, Michael Miu, Felix Wong, and Kent Tong were branded as "TVB's Five Tigers" (無線五虎將) due to their popularity on the show.^[12]

In the late 80s, Lau left TVB due to contract problems. TVB wanted to bind him to an exclusive five-year contract which Lau refused to sign, so TVB blacklisted him. He then focused on his film career.^[5]

Film acting[link]

Lau's wax figure at Madame Tussauds Hong Kong

In 1981, Lau made a guest appearance in one of Susanna Kwan's music video and caught the eye of the manager Teddy Robin.^[13] Teddy Robin then gave Lau a chance to play a small role in the movie Once Upon a Rainbow.^[13] This was the first step in Lau's film acting career.^[13] He was then given a role in Ann Hui's 1982 film, Boat People.^[1] Later in 1983 he had his first leading role in a Shaw Brothers film called On the Wrong Track.^[14]

One of his early leading roles included the more serious 1988 film The Truth (法內情). However, Lau is best known in movies for his (often) recurring roles as a "Heroic Gangster" such as Wong Kar-wai's 1988 film, As Tears Go By and Johnnie To's 1990 film, A Moment of Romance.

Though a respectable actor, Lau in the early days was known more for his good looks. The people he works with say he is an idol, but he has claimed to be an artist.^[3] Lau has proved his acting skills in many of his movies. His first major acting prize came with A Fighter's Blues, which was his first Golden Bauhinia Award for Best Actor.^[15] He would win the Hong Kong Film Award for Best Actor award that year for Running out of Time.^[16] In 2004, he won the prestigious Golden Horse Award for his performance in Infernal Affairs III, the sequel to the popular Infernal Affairs.^[17] Western audiences may also be familiar with his performance in the House of Flying Daggers.

In 2005, Lau was awarded "No.1 Box Office Actor 1985-2005" of Hong Kong, yielding a total box office of HKD 1,733,275,816 for shooting 108 films in the past 20 years.^[5][7] The aforementioned figure is as compared to the first runner-up Stephen Chow's (HKD 1,317,452,311) and second runner-up Jackie Chan's (HKD 894,090,962). "I've never imagine that it would be as much as 1.7 billion!" he told the reporters. For his contributions, a wax figure of Lau was unveiled on June 1, 2005 at the Madame Tussauds Hong Kong.^[18] In 2007, Lau was also awarded the "Nielsen Box Office Star of Asia" by the Nielsen Company (ACNielsen).^[2]

Film producer[link]

In 1991 Lau has set up his own film production company called Teamwork Motion Pictures Limited, which in 2002 was renamed to Focus Group Holdings Limited. His contributions in the film industry as well as his involvement in nurturing new talents in the Asian film industry led him to being awarded the "Asian Filmmaker of the Year" in the Pusan International Film Festival in 2006.^[2] Some of the films he produced include the award-winning Made in Hong Kong and the mainland digital film Crazy Stone.

Musical career[link]

Andy Lau in concert 2011

Lau released his first album "Only Know that I Still Love You" (只知道此刻愛你) under Capital Artists in 1985.^[5] However, his first album was not a big hit.^[5] Despite having a voice not traditionally associated with popular music, his hard work and perseverance resulted in him being one of the most successful singers. His singing career reached stellar status in 1990 with the release of the album entitled "Would It Be Possible" (可不可以), and his subsequent releases only solidified his status as a marketable singer.^[5] For that song, he would win his first 1990 RTHK Top 10 Gold Songs Awards. He would then win at least one RTHK award category every year consecutively until the year 2007.

From Jade Solid Gold Top 10 Awards, he has won the “Most Popular Hong Kong Male Artist” award 7 times and the “Asia Pacific Most Popular Hong Kong Male Artist” award 15 times.^[5] He also entered into Guinness World Records for "Most Awards Won By A Cantopop Male Artist". By April 2000, he had already won a total unprecedented 292 awards.^[5]

Many of his songs quickly topped the music charts, not only in Hong Kong, but also in Taiwan, Mainland China, and in many different parts of Asia. Some of the most notable hits by Lau include "The Days We Spent Together" (一起走過的日子), "If You Are My Legend" (如果你是我的傳說), "The Tide" (潮水), "Forget Love Potion" (忘情水), "True Forever" (真永遠), "Chinese people" (中國人), "Love You Forever" (愛你一萬年), "You Are My Woman" (你是我的女人), "Secret Admiration" (暗裡著迷). Besides singing in Cantonese and Mandarin, he also sang in other languages, such as English, Japanese, Malay, and Taiwanese. One example of a Hokkien song was (世界第一等).^[19]

Since the early 1990s, Lau, along with Jacky Cheung, Aaron Kwok and Leon Lai have been referred by the Chinese media as the Cantopop Four Heavenly Kings (四大天王).^[4]

Lau sang alongside Jackie Chan during a part of the 2008 Summer Olympics closing ceremony on August 24, 2008. In addition Lau, who has been supporting the disabled athletes in Hong Kong for more than a decade, was appointed as the Goodwill ambassador for the 2008 Summer Paralympics.^[20] He led other performers in singing and performing the song "Everyone is No.1" at the Beijing National Stadium just a few hours before the 2008 Paralympics opening ceremony began to show his support for the disabled athletes.^[21] He also sang the theme song "Flying with the Dream" with Han Hong during the Paralympics opening ceremony on September 6, 2008.^[20]

Appearance in other media[link]

Lau is alleged to have been featured as a non-player character (NPC) as a random pedestrian in a sandbox-style action video game called PROTOTYPE. On 6 July, the Hong Kong local newspapers Headline Daily and Sing Tao Daily reported on Lau's cameo.^[22]

Community[link]

In 1994, Lau established the "Andy Lau Charity Foundation" which helps people in need and promotes a wide range of youth education services.^[2] In 1999, he was awarded the "Ten Outstanding Young Persons of the World", being the 3rd person from Hong Kong at that time to bestow this distinguished honor.^[2] In 2008, Lau took a main role in putting together the Artistes 512 Fund Raising Campaign for donation relief toward the victims of the 2008 Sichuan earthquake.^[23] It was one of the largest and most ambitious charity event ever assembled in the territory.

Lau has been noted for his active involvement in charity works throughout his 30 years of showbiz career and was honored "Justice of Peace" by the Hong Kong SAR government in 2008.^[24] In May 2010, he received the "World Outstanding Chinese" award and an "honorary doctorate" from the University of New Brunswick, Canada.^[25]

Incidents[link]

Yang Li-juan fan case[link]

Lau experienced unexpected notoriety with his encounter with a 29 year old fan from mainland China, Yang Li-juan (楊麗娟), who had idolized the star for 13 years.^[26] After her parents sold the family house to pay for a trip to Hong Kong, Yang finally met Lau on March 26, 2007.^[27] One day later, Yang's father committed suicide by throwing himself into the sea in Hong Kong, leaving a suicide note chiding Lau for not having taken his daughter more seriously.^[27]

Awards and nominations[link]

Hong Kong Film Awards

Won[link]

• 1998 Best Film for Made in Hong Kong (Producer)
• 2000 Best Actor for Running Out of Time
• 2003 Best Original Film Song for Infernal Affairs (Singer with Tony Leung ^{[disambiguation needed ]})
• 2004 Best Actor for Running on Karma
• 2008 Best Supporting Actor for Protégé
• 2011 Best Film for Gallants (Producer)
• 2012 Best Film for A Simple Life (Producer)
• 2012 Best Actor for A Simple Life

Nominations[link]

Best Actor[link]

• 1989 Best Actor Nomination for As Tears Go By
• 1992 Best Actor Nomination for Lee Rock
• 1996 Best Actor Nomination for Full Throttle
• 2001 Best Actor Nomination for A Fighter's Blues
• 2002 Best Actor Nomination for Love on a Diet
• 2003 Best Actor Nomination for Infernal Affairs
• 2006 Best Actor Nomination for Wait 'Til You're Older
• 2008 Best Actor Nomination for The Warlords

Best Original Film Song[link]

• 1992 Best Original Film Song Nomination for Casino Raiders II (Singer)
• 1995 Best Original Film Song Nomination for Heaven and Earth ^{[disambiguation needed ]} (Singer)
• 1996 Best Original Film Song Nomination for Full Throttle (Singer/Lyricist)
• 1998 Best Original Film Song Nomination for Island of Greed (Singer)
• 1999 Best Original Film Song Nomination for The Longest Summer (Singer)
• 1999 Best Original Film Song Nomination for A True Mob Story (Singer/Lyricist)
• 2002 Best Original Film Song Nomination for Shaolin Soccer (Singer/Lyricist)
• 2006 Best Original Film Song Nomination for Wait 'Til You're Older (Singer/Lyricist)
• 2008 Best Original Film Song Nomination for Brothers (Singer with Eason Chan/Lyricist)
• 2012 Best Original Film Song Nomination for Shaolin (Singer/Lyricist)

Other Nominations[link]

• 1983 Best New Performer Nomination for Boat People
• 1999 Best Film Nomination for The Longest Summer (Producer)
• 2007 Best Asian Film Nomination for Crazy Stone (Producer)

(11 Best Actor Nominations, 11 Best Original Film Song Nominations, 4 Best Film Nominations, 1 Best Supporting Actor Nomination, 1 Best New Performer Nomination, 1 Best Asia Film Nomination)

References[link]