繁體中文
蔡瀾（Chua Lam），1941年8月18日生於新加坡，祖籍廣東潮州。其父蔡文玄（筆名柳北岸）是新加坡詩人，他自幼受家庭薰陶接觸文藝與電影。他14歲便在新加坡報章發表影評，16歲赴日本留學，入讀日本大學藝術學部電影科編導系，並在邵氏兄弟駐日本辦事處工作，負責選購日本電影並發行到香港，又一度被派往韓國、泰國、馬來西亞等地公幹，1963年才由新加坡調到香港。他長期在邵氏任製作經理，前後效力近二十年；其後轉任嘉禾娛樂副總裁，監製成龍主演的《快餐車》、《龍兄虎弟》、《福星高照》及《一個好人》等片，其中《快餐車》遠赴西班牙取景，參與香港動作片走向國際的年代。1980年代起，他在金庸的鼓勵下於《明報》撰寫專欄「草草不工」，題材遍及飲食、旅遊與人生。1989年，他與黃霑、倪匡合作主持電視清談節目《今夜不設防》，三人妙語連珠，成為香港深夜節目的先驅。此後他以飲食與旅遊寫作及節目聞名，出版著作逾二百種，題材從街頭小吃到米芝蓮餐廳，兼及潮州風味與異國菜式，並主持《蔡瀾逛菜欄》、《蔡瀾嘆世界》等節目，足跡遍及東南亞與日本，並擔任紀錄片《舌尖上的中國》總顧問。他亦習書法、篆刻，晚年把生活點滴寫成散文，讀者遍及各地。他生前以豁達見稱，獲金庸譽為「真正瀟灑的人」，與金庸、倪匡、黃霑並稱「香港四大才子」；2022年獲澳門科技大學頒授榮譽社會科學博士。2025年6月25日，他在香港養和醫院安詳離世，享年八十三歲，親屬按其遺願不設儀式。
English
Chua Lam was born in Singapore on 18 August 1941 with ancestral roots in Chaozhou, Guangdong. His father Cai Wenxuan, a Singapore poet who wrote under the pen name Liu Beian, gave him an early grounding in letters and film; he published his first film review in a Singapore newspaper at fourteen, went to Japan at sixteen to study film directing at Nihon University's art faculty, and worked in Shaw Brothers' Tokyo office, buying Japanese films and distributing them to Hong Kong, with spells posted to Korea, Thailand and Malaysia, only moving to Hong Kong from Singapore in 1963. He spent nearly twenty years at Shaw Brothers as a production manager; he then became a vice-president of Golden Harvest, producing Jackie Chan films including Wheels on Meals, Armour of God, My Lucky Stars and Mr. Nice Guy — Wheels on Meals was shot in Spain — taking part in the era when Hong Kong action cinema went global. From the 1980s, encouraged by Jin Yong, he wrote a column, 'Careless and Unpolished', for Ming Pao on food, travel and life, and in 1989 he hosted the popular television talk show Tonight Uninhibited with James Wong and Ni Kuang, a pioneer of late-night programming in Hong Kong. He later became best known for writing and presenting on food and travel, publishing more than 200 books whose subjects run from street stalls to Michelin restaurants and from Chaozhou flavours to foreign cuisines, and hosting programmes such as Chua Lam's Food Adventures and Chua Lam's World, travelling widely across Southeast Asia and Japan, and served as chief consultant on the documentary series A Bite of China. He also practised calligraphy and seal carving and in later life set down observations of everyday life as essays. Celebrated for his free-and-easy outlook and described by Jin Yong as 'a truly unworldly man', he was one of the 'Four Great Talents of Hong Kong' alongside Jin Yong, Ni Kuang and James Wong, and in 2022 received an honorary doctorate in social sciences from the Macau University of Science and Technology. He died peacefully at Hong Kong Sanatorium & Hospital on 25 June 2025, aged 83, and at his wish no ceremony was held.
