(徐) Tsui Hark (born Tsui Man-Kong; ; Yale: Tsui4 Man6 Kwong1; 15 February 1950) is a New Wave film director in Hong Kong and a highly influential producer.

Early life

Tsui was born and raised in the Chinese section (Cho lon) of Saigon, Vietnam by his Chinese immigrant parents, in a large family with sixteen siblings. By age 13, he and his family immigrated to Hong Kong. Tsui showed an early interest in show business and movies; when he was ten, he and some friends rented an 8 mm camera with which to film the magic show they put on at school. He also drew comic books, an interest that would influence his cinematic style.

Tsui took his secondary education in Hong Kong starting in 1966. He then studied film in Texas, first at Southern Methodist University and then at the University of Texas at Austin, graduating in 1975. He claims to have told his parents he was studying to follow in his father's footsteps as a pharmacist, and that it was here he changed his given name to Hark ("overcoming") (Dannen & Long, 1997).