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Cheuk Pak-Tong

    The rise of the Hong Kong New Wave at the end of the 1970s and beginning of the 1980s may be said to have reflected the needs of the society at the time. The film industry was at a low ebb, indeed facing a temporary slowdown. The speedy development of television filled local requirements of multiculturalism and localization, and in turn spilled forth a breed of younger directors (all were in their twenties or early thirties). These young directors were mostly educated overseas and returned to Hong Kong in the mid-seventies. Filled with passion for the cinema, they found themselves employed initially by the television industry. Several years later, they left television to enter the film industry. Like an irresistible force, their cumulative talents set off a tidal wave that swept over and invigorated the depressed film industry, forging an unprecedented break-through in Hong Kong film culture.

These young directors developed individual styles. Most importantly, they had a deep knowledge of society's needs and their works reverberated with the pulse of the times. Audiences welcomed the diversity of their genres, the rich content of their works, and the power of their images. Their early film work marked the first tidings of a new wave in Chinese cinema, predating the new cinema movements in the P.R.C. and Taiwan. The Hong Kong New Wave took the lead in fostering change and transformation in the film industries of China and Taiwan. This essay explores the circumstances surrounding the rise of the Hong Kong New Wave, focusing particularly on the period of the 1960s and 1970s, when the film industry interacted significantly with the television industry.

The Social and Economic Conditions of Hong Kong

Hong Kong in the 1950s saw a great influx of refugees from mainland China. Among the refugees were merchants, businessmen, and workers whose hard work and successful pursuit of investments from Southeast Asia and elsewhere built the foundation of the Hong Kong economy. In

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the 1960s, Hong Kong was at a crossroads. After a long history as an entrepot economy, Hong Kong was in the process of becoming a manufacturing economy. The population grew rapidly, from 2,220,064 in the 1950s to 3,130,000 in 1961. By 1966, the population stood at...

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