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How Hong Kong filmmaker Fruit Chan found his way in the industry

The Hong Kong filmmaker on the horrors of Hollywood, working his way up and exploring the handover

Reading Time:5 minutes
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Hong Kong filmmaker Fruit Chan. Photo: SCMP / Jocelyn Tam
Douglas Parkes
I was born in Hainan and grew up during the Cultural Revolution. My parents sent me back to their hometown to keep me away from the armed conflicts, fights and struggle sessions happening in the cities. I still remember a visit I made back to the city to see my mum during that time. She had been publicly accused in a struggle session and I saw the aftermath. They had cut her hair – first into a cross shape on her head, then with a flag shaved into it. They kept cutting it over and over until she was almost bald. When I went to see her, she had grown some hair back, but it wasn’t neat. Parts of it were uneven – some sections were shorter, while others were a bit longer.

Everything is different

Fruit Chan in Kowloon, Hong Kong. Photo: Jocelyn Tam
Fruit Chan in Kowloon, Hong Kong. Photo: Jocelyn Tam

Moving to Hong Kong, we went from a closed political system to a completely open one. You could feel that everything was different. The education systems in Hong Kong and the mainland were vastly different. It wasn’t an overwhelming challenge, but I had to learn everything from scratch and start over. But really, I was too young to understand or process how I felt.

Jack of all trades

I attended night school, but I didn’t study for long. Instead, I worked in many different fields. I mainly worked in an electronics factory, but I also worked for a construction and repair company, which dealt with things like cement and scaffolding. I even worked in a car repair shop as a mechanic. I’m not sure how it all started – I was very young and just did whatever people told me to do.

In reel life

My first job in cinema was working as a projectionist. It was a summer job opportunity and I decided to give it a try. I’d watch up to seven movies a day. There were five main screenings in the daytime and a morning and evening screening that would show lesser-known or older films. Watching seven movies in one day could be pretty intense, but it was a rewarding experience for someone who loved films as much as I did.

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