Luk Wan-Fei, right, with Leung Bik-Yuk, center, in a scene from a Grandview Film Company American production, 1940s.
Cantonese opera performer Luk Wan-Fei was among the actors touring America during the late 1930s when the Second Sino-Japanese war escalated in their native Hong Kong. Stranded in San Francisco at the outbreak of World War II while working at the Mandarin Theatre in San Francisco Chinatown, Luk found employment at Grandview Film Company.
Luk’s comedic skills became popular with audiences in the U.S., and he would appear in thirteen known films for the Chinatown studio. He returned to Hong Kong after the war and acted in a few films, but focused mostly on stage work, first in Hong Kong and later in the newly founded People’s Republic of China.
Luk’s story is a featured profile in Arthur Dong’s upcoming book, Grandview Film: Cinematic Crossings with Joseph Sunn Jue.
Maeley Tom, Luk Wan-Fei’s daughter, is interviewed by writer Arthur Dong via Zoom.
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