Ni Kuang - Biography

Biography

Born Ni Chong (Chinese: 倪聰), he grew up in Shanghai. He worked as a public security official in the 1950s in Inner Mongolia before moving to Hong Kong in 1957. Ni's reason for coming to Hong Kong was the fear of political persecution. When he was working for the CCP, he was tasked with writing death sentences. One time, he questioned his local party chief about why a particular man was sentenced to death, when the only crime stated on paper was that he was a landlord. The chief rebuked him and threatened him with the death sentence if he continued to ask such questions. According to Ni, he complied in fear of his own life. Nevertheless, this was not the worst death sentence he had written as there were many other questionable death sentences that the CCP carried out categorized under "others". It was from these experiences that Ni made up his mind to escape from the People's Republic of China.

Ni's science fiction stories, which have been enjoyed by generations of juvenile readers in Hong Kong, usually take the form of mysteries- often featuring extraterrestrial life as a deus ex machina to explain the impossible and implausible. The most famous of his science fiction heroes are Wai See-lei (or Wisely 衛斯理) and Yuen Tsang-hop (or Dr. Yuen 原振俠), both have appeared in television and film adaptions. In these stories criticism of communism is common.

Ni wrote many scripts for the Shaw Brothers Studio, and often co-wrote scripts with Chang Cheh, including films such as One-Armed Swordsman, The Assassin and Crippled Avengers. In 1972, Ni was the screenwriter for Fist of Fury, and received credit for creating the film's main character, Chen Zhen (played by Bruce Lee). Chen Zhen became a popular Chinese culture hero and has been the subject of numerous remakes and adaptations of Fist of Fury. Other actors such as Jet Li and Donnie Yen have played the role of Chen Zhen after Bruce Lee.

Ni is a friend and fan of wuxia writer Louis Cha. It is known that Ni had written at least an extended episode in Demi-Gods and Semi-Devils when Cha was out on holiday in Europe, although much of it was excised in Cha's first revision. Ni, while helping Cha write nearly 40 days of serialization while he was abroad, made A'zi, a character from Demi-Gods and Semi-Devils, blind in the story. Cha has since re-edited his wuxia works.

Ni later migrated to the United States in the 1992 (in fear of Hong Kong's 1997 Handover) and has continued his writing career there. He had cited that unless the Communists in China were vanquished, he would not return. In 2006, Ni and his wife moved back to Hong Kong after he sold his home in the United States. His reason for return is that his wife could not adjust to their lifestyle there.

Ni's son, Joe Nieh, works in the Hong Kong entertainment industry, and after a twenty year long relationship is now the husband of Vivian Chow.