How Raymond Lam went from Hong Kong TV extra to film star, singer and the ‘King of Chok'
biweekly series profiling major Hong Kong pop culture figures of recent decades.
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Affectionately dubbed the 'King of Chok' – chok being a Cantonese slang term that means trying to look cool or handsome, often to the point of being pretentious or cocky – Raymond Lam Fung is one of Hong Kong's most successful entertainers of the 2000s.
After training with Hong Kong broadcaster TVB at the beginning of his career, he made a name for himself as a television actor and cemented his status as a heartthrob through shows like La Femme Desperado, Moonlight Resonance and The Mysteries of Love.
In the following years, Lam also became a Cantopop singer – music was his first love – and later ventured into the mainland Chinese market in the 2010s.
Raymond Lam Fung made a name for himself as a television actor early in his career.
Born in 1979 in Xiamen, in mainland China, Lam grew up as part of a wealthy family and moved to Hong Kong as a young child. As the eldest son of a property tycoon, he was expected to take over the family business when he became an adult.
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