James Wong JimJames Wong Jim

In 1965 黃湛森 hosted the cultural program "青年聯誼會" on Rediffusion Television and brought back the stage name "黃霑", which had been set aside for several years. The same year "謎", written for 華娃, caught the eye of the boss of 香港娛樂唱片公司, and a composing career formally began, most often writing both music and words. On April 15, 1967 James Wong Jim married 華娃 (劉桂洪); they had two sons and one daughter. In between James Wong Jim also hosted variety shows including "金玉滿堂" and "群星會", and in 1969 won "最佳电视节目男司仪奖" and was called the "prince of television" by "香港電視週刊".

In 1972 潘迪華 invested in and produced the original Chinese-language musical "白孃孃", and through a friend's introduction hired James Wong Jim as lyricist; this was also the first collaboration with composer and arranger Joseph Koo. After leaving 國泰廣告公司 in 1973, James Wong Jim formed 寶鼎電影事業有限公司 with friends; the 1974 Mandarin film "天堂" was the debut work, written and directed by James Wong Jim. In September the same year the English song "L-O-V-E Love" took second place in TVB's "香港流行歌曲创作邀请赛". The 1975 Cantonese comedy "大家樂" was co-directed by James Wong Jim and 胡樹儒, and James Wong Jim also wrote the script and the songs.

From the late 1960s into the early 1970s, just entering lyric writing, James Wong Jim mainly wrote Mandarin shidaiqu, often under pen names such as 陸郎, 詹嘯, 久流, 鐵樹 and 劉傑. In 1975 (one account says 1973) James Wong Jim wrote a number of Cantonese lyrics for the Hong Kong tour of a Disneyland performing troupe, among them "世界真細小"; afterward, under the pen name "劉傑", James Wong Jim wrote lyrics or music for television dramas, the first being songs for the TVB series "董小宛", and the theme of the 1976 CTV series "射鵰英雄傳" also comes from this period. In these years James Wong Jim wrote many film and television themes and inserts on self-expectation and dignified self-strengthening, such as "問我", "命運", "奮鬥" and "獅子山下", and, like lyricists of the same generation, worked out the "三及第" lyric style mixing classical, vernacular and colloquial, of which "獅子山下" and "世界真細小" are examples. Counts differ: the English Wikipedia records that from the 1960s James Wong Jim wrote lyrics for more than 2,000 songs, and collaborated with Joseph Koo; the Avenue of Stars introduction writes that the works approach 2000 songs.

In the mid-1970s James Wong Jim and the writer 林燕妮 fell in love, and in 1976 the two formed 黃與林廣告有限公司; in 1985 the company was bought by Saatchi & Saatchi, James Wong Jim became vice-chairman for Hong Kong, and in early 1988 left advertising in order to concentrate on making films. In the mid-1980s the television-song boom faded, Joseph Koo began to produce less, and later moved to Canada; from then until the early 1990s James Wong Jim turned to film scores, often writing lyrics for James Wong Jim's own tunes, including the theme "晚風" from "上海之夜", "黎明不要來" from "倩女幽魂", and "流光飛舞" from "青蛇". The Chinese Wikipedia quotes the approach, from 1987, to the "倩女幽魂" series scores as "Chinese music on top, Western instruments underneath", and as using the electronic synthesizers then newly current. In the 1990s James Wong Jim also worked with several musicians to write "滄海一聲笑" and "男兒當自強".

At the Hong Kong Film Awards, James Wong Jim and 戴樂民 won Best Music at the 7th for "倩女幽魂", and "黎明不要來", composed and written by James Wong Jim and sung by Sally Yeh, won Best Film Song at the same edition; at the 10th, "秦俑", a collaboration with Joseph Koo and 戴樂民, won Best Film Score, and "滄海一聲笑", composed and written by James Wong Jim and sung by Sam Hui, won Best Film Song; afterward "黃飛鴻" won Best Film Score at the 11th, and "梁祝", a collaboration with 胡偉立, Mark Lui and 黃英華, won Best Film Score at the 14th. The film music also won Taiwan's Golden Horse Awards more than once, and James Wong Jim appeared in films including "不文騷" (1992) and "唐伯虎點秋香" (1993).

"不文集", completed as a book in 1983, collects columns James Wong Jim wrote in "明報周刊" from 1973, including dirty jokes, sexual riddles, lore of swear words, and doggerel. Singing was only a hobby for James Wong Jim; according to the Chinese Wikipedia, only two solo singing albums were ever released: the 1989 concept album "香港 X'mas" and the 1990 "笑傲江湖 百無禁忌黃霑作品集". From 1989 to 1990, with 倪匡 and 蔡瀾, James Wong Jim hosted ATV's adult talk show "今夜不設防"; the same article records that the media therefore called the three "Hong Kong's three famous mouths".

Afterward investments failed and debts piled up. James Wong Jim signed a package contract with TVB that, by James Wong Jim's own account, paid four million a year, and from 1993 to 1997 hosted a number of variety, information and talk shows. In 1995 James Wong Jim said the debts were cleared, and the same year registered a marriage with 陳惠敏 in Las Vegas in the United States.

In 1981 James Wong Jim finished the MPhil thesis "粵劇問題探討"; the supervisor was 羅忼烈, professor in the Department of Chinese at the University of Hong Kong, and in 1983 the University of Hong Kong awarded the MPhil. According to the Chinese Wikipedia, in April 2001 James Wong Jim was confirmed to have stage-three lung cancer; after surgery and chemotherapy there was for a time no great trouble, and in May 2002 the cancer returned and spread to the liver and the brain; after a second course of treatment James Wong Jim recovered again, finished the doctoral thesis, and held "黃霑獅子山下演唱會". The thesis "粵語流行曲的發展與興衰：香港流行音樂研究（1949－1997）" was written in May 2003, and in September the same year the Centre of Asian Studies and the Department of Sociology at the University of Hong Kong awarded the PhD.

In the early hours of November 24, 2004, James Wong Jim died of pneumonia brought on by terminal lung cancer at Union Hospital in Sha Tin, at the age of 63; a report by China News (chinanews.com) gives 64. According to the Chinese Wikipedia, on December 5 the entertainment world for the first time borrowed Hong Kong Stadium for "黄霑博士追思会", attended by more than ten thousand people; Taiwan's 39th Golden Bell Awards, the 41st Golden Horse Awards, and Hong Kong's 27th Top Ten Chinese Gold Songs afterward all included a segment paying tribute to James Wong Jim.

In early 2005 Joseph Koo wrote the memorial song "霑叔", with lyrics by 鄭國江, 潘源良 and 林夕, arrangement and production by Mark Lui, and vocals by The Wynners; it was first played at the IFPI Hong Kong Top Sales Music Awards ceremony. In 2015 both the 37th Top Ten Chinese Gold Songs awards and the 34th Hong Kong Film Awards set aside a tribute segment for the tenth anniversary of James Wong Jim's death, with George Lam, 岑寧兒, 林奕匡 and others singing the works. On March 18, 2021, James Wong Jim's eightieth birthday, the Hong Kong Studies programme at the University of Hong Kong held "俗世先驅 · 香江名句 — 黃霑博士誕辰八十周年紀念對談", with eldest son 黃宇瀚 among the speakers. On the twentieth anniversary of the death, the Hong Kong Heritage Museum held the exhibition "滄海一聲笑—黃霑"; the exhibition introduction says James Wong Jim was skilled at writing lyrics, composing, scoring, writing columns, making films, creating advertisements, and stage performance.