Director Chiang Wai-Kwong, left, and props man Chinn Chun Wah on a Grandview set in San Francisco Chinatown, 1944.
Chiang Wai-Kwong launched his film career at Grandview Film Company’s San Francisco studio, and became one of Hong Kong’s most prolific directors in the decades following World War II. He sailed to San Francisco in 1941 under contract with the Mandarin Theatre as part of a Cantonese opera troupe, but just five months later, World War II erupted, and as with other visiting artists, travel back to Hong Kong was halted. Fortuitously, Joseph Sunn Jue enlisted Chiang to work on an ambitious slate of productions. For the next six years, Chiang directed nine known features and wrote three for the Chinatown studio. There, he was the first to pair the popular couple Chow Kwun-Ling and Wong Chiu-Mo. In total, Chiang accumulated 160 directing and 80 screenplay credits, earning him the Hong Kong title, “The God of Fortune Director 財神導演.”
Chiang’s story is featured in Arthur Dong’s upcoming book, Grandview Film: Cinematic Crossings with Joseph Sunn Jue.
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