- Chua Lam
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Chua Lam
蔡瀾
Hong Kong Book Fair 2008, 25-7-2008Chinese name 蔡瀾 (Traditional) Chinese name 蔡澜 (Simplified) Born 18 August 1941
SingaporeOccupation food critic, producer Spouse(s) Cheung King-man 張瓊文 Parents Chua Boon-suan (1907-1997)
Hung Fong-pingThis is a Chinese name; the family name is Chua.Chua Lam (also known as Tsai Lan, Teochew: Chùa Lāng) (simplified Chinese: 蔡澜, traditional Chinese: 蔡瀾, Japanese: チョイ・ラン) (born 1941 in Singapore) is a columnist, food critic and occasional television host in Hong Kong and Japan. He was also a movie producer for the Hong Kong movie studio Golden Harvest.
Contents
Background
Chua Lam's father, Chua Boon Suan (蔡文玄), hailed from the Jio Mung Chua (蔡門石) village in Chaozhou, and later migrated to Singapore. His father worked in a high-ranking post at the Shaw Brothers Studio and his father died in 1997. Chua Lam currently is staying in Hong Kong.
Movie producer
Chua was a producer of several movies for Golden Harvest, including several films for Jackie Chan. Notable films include Mr. Nice Guy (credited as executive producer), Thunderbolt (credited as producer), Sex and Zen and City Hunter (credited as producer).
Writer
Chua was a columnist on Oriental Daily in Hong Kong. Chua later switched to writing columns for the Next Media's publications, namely Next Magazine (on movies and a restaurant guide), Apple Daily and Eat and Travel Weekly. All columns have continued as of 2007.
Tour organizer
In recent years (2005 - current), Chua has organized special tours in Asia and around the world to sample the best local speciality food. Chua often writes, in his newspaper columns, about the tours' organizing trips where he and others sample food from four or five restaurants per day in order to select the best restaurants.
Japan
Chua has written a number of books and restaurant guides on Hong Kong in Japanese. Chua is primarily known in Japan as a judge on the Fuji TV series Iron Chef. Chua studied as a student in Japan and lived there for several years, because of this he is exceptionally fluent in Japanese, allowing him to enjoy the experience of living and visiting places in Japan where most ordinary tourists do not. He writes about his living experience in many Hong Kong newspapers and magazines.
Filmography
Year Title 1985 Heart of Dragon 1986 Dr. Yuen and Wisely 1987 Armour of God 1987 Born to Gamble 1987 Killer's Nocturne 1987 Erotic Ghost Story 1988 Profiles of Pleasure 1988 Peacock King 1989 Four Loves 1990 A Sau-loh 1991 Robotrix 1991 Erotic Ghost Story II 1991 Au revoir, mon amour 1991 Riki-Oh: The Story of Ricky 1992 Erotic Ghost Story III 1992 The Cat 1993 City Hunter 1993 Crime Story 1994 Girls Unbutton 1994 Chinese Torture Chamber 1994 Spirit of Love 1995 Trilogy of Love 1995 Thunderbolt 1995 An Affair in Nanjing 1996 The Imp 1997 Mr. Nice Guy 1998 Extreme Crisis TV shows
- 2007: Market Trotter (蔡瀾逛菜欄)
- 2007: Ten Years After (拾年)
- 2008: Chu As Choice (蔡瀾歎名菜)
- 2009: Be My Guest (志雲飯局)
Gastronomic philosophy
One of his most beloved dishes is stir fried bean sprout with fried tofu and fish sauce.
Chua is famous to advocate the use of pork dripping in food preparation and as a condiment. He has cited and promoted the pork fat usage in most of his TV shows.
Quotes
"Choose to do something and you have a 50/50 chance of succeeding. Choose to do nothing and you will definitely fail."
"Happiness comes from sacrificing a bit of your health".
"Long live cholesterol!" "膽固醇萬歲!"
Videos
External links
- Chua Lam's official website
- IMDB entry
- Goo Movies (Japan)
- Cinemasie
- The New York Times entry
- Chua Lam's ebook website
Categories:- 1941 births
- Living people
- Hong Kong food writers
- Singaporean people of Teochew descent
- Hong Kong people of Chaoshanese descent
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