Roy Tsui

Tsui Ka Ho (born 30 Sept 1980), usually known by his pen name Lin Ri Xi or Roy Tsui, is a Hong Kong lyricist who has written over 80 pieces of lyrics since 2007. He is also a writer and the founder of 'Black Paper Limited', most TV, magazines, including the lifestyle magazine 100 Most and Black Paper, as well as the White Paper Publisher. He has also been writing columns for several papers like the Mingpao Weekly and the Oriental Daily News.

Biography

Tsui was born in Hong Kong and grew up in a public housing estate at Tai Wo Hau, lived with his parents, grandparents and his auntie. He changed schools constantly due to his poor results and conduct. After secondary school, he took a 3-year graphic design course at IVE.[1]

Roy Tsui dropped out from the Hong Kong Institute of Vocational Education (IVE) Design.

In 2003, he joined the Commercial Radio Hong Kong as a sound editor, and later, as the coordinator of the online forums. The online forums had been asked to closed one day and Tsui stepped up and told his boss Winnie Yu that the forum should not be closed. Yu wasted no time and asked Tsui to step into her office. She called all the upper management at Commercial Radio and had a meeting around Tsui and the forums were saved. Tsui see this as a great chance to let her take a look of the lyrics he has been writing. Yu requested Tsui to write 10 more lyrics and she called a meeting again. This changed the career path of Tsui from clerk to production. He recommend himself to be the backstage design team for CR1(FM 88.1-89.5) 電台雷霆881 and CR2(FM 90.3-92.1)叱吒903.

He then changed his job once every few months between the ages 23 and 31. He has also been Creative Director of the Skyhigh Creative Partners. He quit it in 2012 as he thinks he could not share any valuable experience and is not good enough as a mentor for the youngsters.[2] In 2007, he wrote the theme song lyrics of the movie ‘Tokyo Tower - Mom & Me, And Sometimes Dad’, called 'gulugulu'. This is considered to be his first signature piece. The song entered the Ultimate Song Chart in the same year.

In 2009, he founded the creative unit 'Black Paper' with Ah Bu and Chan Keung. Then he started working on different kinds of creation, for instance, publishing magazines, direct music video and graphic design. He published the one-page magazine 'Black Paper' in Jan 2010. His career as a columnist at newspapers like Ming Pao weekly and RoadShow, City Magazine and Oriental Daily news and Hong Kong Economic Times started at 2011. A year later, he published first book 'idiot'(《白痴》). At 2013 March, he published the magazine '100 most', which reached the break-even point within half a year. He also founded the White Paper Publisher same year, which focused in publishing books of popular culture including fictions, prose and picture books. In the same year, he published the second book 'Green Veins'(《青筋》) and published 'Black Face'(《黑面》) a year after. He later published his first fiction ‘Happy Never After'(《快樂有限》), then ‘Excessively Romantic’ ( 《肉麻》)and in 2015 published ‘Grey Eurasian Collared’ (《灰鳩》). In 2015, he and his team created the TV website, TV Most.

Works

Lyrics

2007

2008

2009

2010

2011

2012

2013

2014

2015

Magazines

Compared to 100 Most, Black Paper is a more heavy and serious magazine. It is more about the society, criticising it. It changes its format once in a while to avoid boredom. It is a one-page A5 size magazine with one side of picture of famous people and the other side filled with ‘black sentence’. ‘Black sentence’ is a short but precise sentence about the monthly theme. His idea is to make the sentences as short as possible so that people would have the patience to finish reading it. The overall style of the magazine is to be ‘somehow’ humorous, sensible and critical.[3]

100 Most is a life style magazine which started by Roy Tsui, Bu and Chan Keung in 2013. The purpose of the magazine is to provide laughter to Hong Kong people. According to Tsui, the editors have huge freedom in which they can choose to write on anything as long as they think it is interesting. Most of the editors are the young post-90s and Tsui believes that they are the only ones suitable to the job as they know what is going on on the internet and they know what is popular. As a boss, Tsui do not have much restrictions on the content of magazines and uses an inactive approach to lead the company. The magazine is mainly about popular culture in Hong Kong. Tsui and his partners hope to educate people about the society, if not, at least people can be entertained from the news of it. The freedom and humour in the magazine is what makes it interesting and popular among the younger generation in Hong Kong.[4]

TV

Youngster in Hong Kong nowadays watch less TV. Some of them even regard watching TV as something to be ashamed of. This shows the TV industry has some kind of negative connotations attached to it. Seeing this, Tsui believes that he and his team can do something on this and make television interesting again. Believing TV shows should not be confined in the traditional framework. ‘A single sheet of paper could be a magazine, so why must TV be on TV?’ And hence, he started the TV website, TV Most.[5]

Books

Title Book Summary Year of Publication Publisher
‘Idiot’

《白痴》

First collection of prose written by Roy Tsui. By stories from daily life, he criticize the modern ‘normal’ society with his unique point of view. Hoping to lead readers to reflect on their own lives and rebuild them. 2012 White Paper Publisher
‘Green Veins’

《青筋》

 “Look at your wrist, we all have a youthful vein.”

Another collection of prose of Tsui, aiming to view the society in a different and somewhat weird way, and to use a youthful mind to see the ever-growing-old world. The blue vein we always see on our wrist has been here since our birth. It is just like our youthfulness – it is always here, depending on when you decided to let it out. Then you will realize age is never an excuse because your body is never what carries youth, your heart is.[6]

 2013 White Paper Publisher
‘Black Face’

《黑面》

 Some people are often been commented as pulling a long face without realising it. Roy Tsui is also part of them. And from his experience, he thinks that the only advantage brought by this is that one can live comfortably. It is because one does not have to face people you don’t want to see, you don’t have to join uninterested conversations, you don’t have to practice smiling just to please others. You can enjoy your own personal space and do whatever you like – at this moment, all the disadvantages brought by your facial expression means nothing as you do not have to care about any other things but you. This is selfish but happy.[7] 2014 White Paper Publisher
‘Happy Never After’

《快樂有限》

 A collection of 37 short stories about happiness, loneliness and sadness written by Roy Tsui. Sadness is temporary, happiness is temporary. Whatever it is, it will pass someday. –quote from ‘Happy Never After’.[8] 2014 White Paper Publisher
‘Excessively Romantic’

《肉麻》

 Being excessively romantic is an attitude. People afraid of losing things. This fear make us keep our emotions flat as being emotionless is safer. Even if emotions are not expressed, one will need to find a way to release them one day. People kill people suicide. This is mainly because they have been emotionless for too long and backfired in this way. Be mushier to the one you love, as well as to the world.[9] 2015 White Paper Publisher
‘Grey Eurasian Collared Dove’

《灰鳩》

 Most of us in this world chose a life to work day by day. Then, once in a while, we look up to the sky and admire the grey birds fly upon the sky, being free. Perhaps we could not change the environment around us, but we can see what the seemingly sad life really is and practice our mind and set ourselves free in our hearts.[10] 2015 White Paper Publisher

Columns

Writing Style

Most of his works are lyrics and started writing books afterwards. He mainly write short stories and prose as he thinks he does not have the time needed for him to write a long fiction. He needs to be completely focused and devote most of his time to the writing of long stories which he could not do so at the present. He writes in mainly vernacular Chinese and sometimes mixed with some spoken Cantonese. He writes in a straightforward style, usually illustrate his point of view by his own experience or the social phenomenon he observes. The productions 100 Most and TV Most of his company adopts a more fun and humorous way of presenting ideas but he himself thinks he is not such a person. He is a more serious and a person who thinks deeply.[11] This reflects in his writings. His books and articles are not as light as the magazines, but sometimes quite dark instead. He adopts an ironic manner to write, especially when criticizing politics in Hong Kong.

Influence to his thinking/ writing

He has been rebellious for most of his life. This can be seen from the number of schools he attended and his career path. He switched his secondary school for almost five times and decided to drop out of IVE himself. For his career path, he first worked as a clerk and then his bravery made him a producer and later an owner of two magazines and publisher.

Family

His family’s way of parenting is one of the biggest influence to his writing and thinking. His family adopts a kind of uninvolved style of parenting, which they do not cast too much control on Tsui. This allows him to do whatever he likes and his family would not interfere his decisions. For instance, even if his father thinks that the secondary school Tsui chose for himself does not fit him, he would not alter his choice but just give a simple criticism on that.[12] His motto of life is not to trust anybody's words, in other words, to keep reflecting on the everyday social customs. He tries to think more about these paradoxical customs and understand the reason behind. He does things he thinks is right. He thinks it is alright to challenge authorities if one do not agree with them, but this has to be with one’s own reason. This view of him is solidified after him reading the book which published in 1895, ‘The Crowd:A Study of the Popular Mind ‘.[13]

Writers/Artists

In addition, Chan Wai Yee(Chan Wai) is the writer who influenced him most. He started reading extensively in his gap year after his decision of dropping out of IVE. The writing style of Chan Wai is also a simplistic way. He understood from her writings that stories does not necessary has to be exaggerating nor too complicated. The stories written by Chan Wai is like everyday life, which is the reason why Tsui likes her books. They may not have dramatic scenes but the simplicity touches people instead.[14] Another artist that he finds interesting is Hsia Yu. There is one particular work Tsui admire, which is her collection of poems 'Pink Noise'. The way she creates inspires Tsui to think out of the box and do things which others may oppose but he likes.

Influential Figures in His Life

Lin Xi is often considered as his mentor in his writing of lyrics though he never admitted it. Tsui first met Lin Xi at a meeting called by Winnie Yu after he submitted his lyrical works to her. Lin Xi always gives Tsui advice when Tsui first entered the industry. Tsui admired Lin Xi’ perseverance most as he can keep editing his own work and keep editing to perfection.[15]

Winnie Yu is another important person that influenced him a lot. She is his boss in the Commercial Radio. She did not directly help him in any way but altered his job career totally. She is the one giving him chance to switch from a clerk to production. The way Winnie Yu influenced Tsui is not by words but by what she did. Tsui admired Winnie Yu for how she would work on an immature idea with him and would not give up discussing and working just to make the idea perfect. She is the kind of person that bans ones idea but would come back the other day with another new idea and then discard that new idea once again because it is not good enough. Her perseverance and the determination to create the best idea influenced Tsui a lot.[16]

References

  1. ↑ Hon, Isabelle (Sep 24, 2015). "Who's the Man Behind the Cantopop Machine?". HK Magazine. Retrieved 3 November 2015.
  2. ↑ http://tvb4life.pixnet.net/blog/post/191350791-%E9%9D%9E%E5%B8%B8%E4%BA%BA%E8%AA%9E-%E6%AF%9B%E5%AD%A9%E5%AD%90%E3%80%80%E6%9E%97%E6%97%A5%E6%9B%A6. Missing or empty |title= (help)
  3. ↑ 吳, 世寧 (18 Feb 2015). "吳世寧：林日曦不愛看100毛-理性讀瘋狂". Retrieved 1 November 2015.
  4. ↑ Yip, Joyce. "Survival by rebellion". Marketing. Retrieved 2 November 2015.
  5. ↑ Hon, Isabelle (24 Sep 2015). "Who's the Man Behind the Cantopop Machine?". HK Magazine.
  6. ↑ Tsui, Roy. Green Veins. Hong Kong: White Paper Publisher.
  7. ↑ Tsui`, Roy. Black Face. Hong Kong: White Paper Publisher.
  8. ↑ Tsui, Roy. Happy Never After. Hong Kong.
  9. ↑ Tsui, Roy. Excessively Romantic. Hong Kong: White Paper Publisher.
  10. ↑ Tsui, Roy. Grey Eurasian Collared Dove. Hong Kong: White Paper Publisher.
  11. ↑ "林日曦呢個黑紙100毛人". 加燦喜歡指指點點.
  12. ↑ https://www.symedialab.org.hk/talk/%E9%BB%91%E9%9D%A2%E7%A5%9E%E6%9E%97%E6%97%A5%E6%9B%A6/. Missing or empty |title= (help)
  13. ↑ http://www.pentoy.hk/%E6%96%87%E5%8C%96/n306/2015/02/18/%E5%90%B3%E4%B8%96%E5%AF%A7%EF%BC%9A%E6%9E%97%E6%97%A5%E6%9B%A6%E4%B8%8D%E6%84%9B%E7%9C%8B100%E6%AF%9B-%E7%90%86%E6%80%A7%E8%AE%80%E7%98%8B%E7%8B%82/. Missing or empty |title= (help)
  14. ↑ http://www.pentoy.hk/%E6%96%87%E5%8C%96/n306/2015/02/18/%E5%90%B3%E4%B8%96%E5%AF%A7%EF%BC%9A%E6%9E%97%E6%97%A5%E6%9B%A6%E4%B8%8D%E6%84%9B%E7%9C%8B100%E6%AF%9B-%E7%90%86%E6%80%A7%E8%AE%80%E7%98%8B%E7%8B%82/. Missing or empty |title= (help)
  15. ↑ http://tvb4life.pixnet.net/blog/post/191350791-%E9%9D%9E%E5%B8%B8%E4%BA%BA%E8%AA%9E-%E6%AF%9B%E5%AD%A9%E5%AD%90%E3%80%80%E6%9E%97%E6%97%A5%E6%9B%A6. Missing or empty |title= (help)
  16. ↑ http://tvb4life.pixnet.net/blog/post/191350791-%E9%9D%9E%E5%B8%B8%E4%BA%BA%E8%AA%9E-%E6%AF%9B%E5%AD%A9%E5%AD%90%E3%80%80%E6%9E%97%E6%97%A5%E6%9B%A6. Missing or empty |title= (help)
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