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Wu Ma

Chinese actor and film director (1942-2014)

Correspondence, annotated notebooks and portrait silhouettes prepared for research
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Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionSep 3, 2026
Entity authorityQ851018
Source-derived summary

Fung Wang-yuen (Chinese: 馮宏源; 22 September 1942 – 4 February 2014), better known by his stage name Wu Ma (午馬), was a Hong Kong actor and filmmaker. He made his screen debut in 1963, and with over 240 appearances to his name (plus 49 directorial credits within a 50-year period).

During his lifetime, he was considered one of the most familiar faces in the history of Hong Kong cinema, and was widely known for his portrayal of Taoist ghosthunter Yan Chixia in A Chinese Ghost Story. He was a four-time Hong Kong Film Award nominee, three for Best Supporting Actor and one for Best Director, and a Golden Horse Award winner.

Early years

Wu was born Fung Wang-yuen in Tianjin, China. At 16 he moved to Guangzhou and became a machinist before migrating to Hong Kong in 1960. In 1962, Feng enrolled in the Shaw Brothers acting course. Graduating a year later, he became a contract player for the studio and made his first appearance in Lady General Hua Mu-lan. He then appeared in such films as Temple of the Red Lotus (1965), The Knight of Knights (1966) and Trail of the Broken Blade (1967). He took on the stage name 'Wu Ma' as it reflected the animal in the year of his birth (the horse), and believed it was short enough for audiences to remember.

Editorial summary

The public source identifies “Wu Ma” as chinese actor and film director (1942-2014). This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Chinese, actor and film.

Editorial reviewStrongest as a route into the people, institutions and dated events that shaped the subject’s public record. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1942, 2014, 1963, 1960—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1942-09-22. Its value is orientation rather than verdict, with Chinese, actor and film providing the first useful test.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “Wu Ma”, the useful work is to connect “chinese actor and film director (1942-2014)” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.

Evidence profile

Biographical claims are most persuasive when dates, appointments and relationships can be traced to records created close to the events described. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 3, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q851018. VIAF identifies the subject as 41615179. The Library of Congress control number is no2007040820. 3 of 5 selected statements include explicit references; 2 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1942, 2014, 1963 and 1960.

Critical limits

Public reputation and documentary evidence do not always develop together; absence from a summary is not evidence of historical absence. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Read biographical claims against dates, named institutions and the cited references. Distinguish a subject’s later reputation from evidence produced during their lifetime.

Best used for
  • Establishing names and roles
  • Building a first chronology
  • Locating cited institutions
Verify next

Personal papers, civil or court records, institutional files and the scholarship cited by the source.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Wu Ma”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Wu Ma primary sources, Wu Ma archive and Chinese research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Wu Ma”?
  2. Which claims depend on a single source or contested interpretation?
  3. How has the subject’s reputation changed across later accounts?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from Wu Ma” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.