Nicholas Tse Ting-Fung

Biography:
The prodigal son of the Hong Kong entertainment circle, Nicholas Tse Ting-Fung was born on August 29, 1980. Tse spent most of his formative years in Vancouver and Phoenix, Arizona, but Hong Kong audiences became acquainted with him as a child because of his parents, veteran actors Patrick Tse and Deborah Li. Both revelled in being the focus of media attention and often brought out Tse and his sister to pose for holiday family photos, which were published in HK magazines. As a result of the early attention, Tse became accustomed to being in the public eye and it seemed inevitable that he would follow in their footsteps—in more ways than one.

Starting out initially in music, Tse made his first venture into the movies with his role as a young Chan Ho-Nam in Young and Dangerous: The Prequel (1998). His performance earned him a Hong Kong Film Award for Best New Artist. He followed this with strong outings in the drama Metade Fumaca (1999), and in commercial productions like Gen-X Cops (1999) and My Schoolmate, the Barbarian (2001). In addition, he had a scene-stealing cameo in Comic King (2000), and wrote and co-directed a short with fellow actor Stephen Fung for the anthology film Heroes in Love (2001).

However, while Tse is considered to be one of the most promising actors of his generation, it is his off-screen escapades that have garnered the most attention. He’s kept the press busy ever since stepping foot in Hong Kong as a singer in 1996, from criticism of him riding on the coattails of his parents to news of rivalries with other male entertainers. In addition, his on-and-off-again relationship with older woman Faye Wong has been prime water-cooler discussion fodder. Not afraid to share his opinions, Tse has also gained negative attention for his outspokenness in interviews. At one point, he was frozen by TVB after criticizing them in an inteview with TimeAsia.com.

More recently, it was Tse's penchant for speed that put him in hot water. His now infamous perversion of justice case—in which a chauffeur for entertainment company EEG attempted to take the blame for an accident that Tse caused—was headline news for many months. The courts handed Tse a guilty verdict and he spent two weeks in jail before being sentenced to 240 hours of community service, a decision that incited much public uproar. Tse took a six-month sabbatical after the trial but returned to the entertainment circle in March of 2003. (Yinique 2003)

A Song to share...
Nicholas Tse - Huang Zong Ren (Yellow Mandarin version)