18-07-2025
- Entertainment
- South China Morning Post
How Hong Kong star Adam Cheng went from TV heartthrob to stock market jinx
This is the 55th instalment in a
biweekly series profiling major Hong Kong pop culture figures of recent decades.
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An enduring name in Hong Kong's entertainment industry, Adam Cheng Siu-chau has been a prominent actor and singer for the past five decades.
Beginning his career in the 1960s, he went on to make a name for himself as a suave leading man, particularly in
wuxia period dramas . Among his most popular television shows are The Legend of the Book and the Sword (1976), The Heaven Sword and Dragon Saber (1978) and Chor Lau-heung (1979).
For many people of his generation, it is Cheng's starring role in the series The Greed of Man (1992) that left the most lasting impression – it even gave rise to a stock market phenomenon called the 'Ting Hai effect'.
Adam Cheng, in a Chinese costume from the TV series Chor Lau Heung, at an interview with the Post in 1979. Photo: Yau Tin-kwai
Born in 1947, Cheng was passionate about performing from a young age. As a teenager, he sang at a playground and was later noticed by a Hong Kong film studio. From there, he began playing supporting roles in various films, such as A Sweet Girl, The Black Killer and I Love A-Go-Go, all in 1967.
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'In those days, I only earned HK$50 a month,' Cheng told the Post in 1979.
