His contributions to Cantonese opera significantly influenced Hong Kong's reform and development of the genre beginning in the late 1930s.

A fifth (irrespective of age) child Cheng mentioned in a 1989 interview, after the passing of Yam Kim Fai, is not listed on Tang's headstone.

Tang worked as a copyist and assistant to Fung Chi-fen (馮志芬) and Nam Hoi Sup-sam Long (南海十三郎), two famous writers for the troupe.

Encouraged by Sit Gok Sin, Tang began his career as a playwright in 1938 with his first (being taken as an announcement of his intention to be in the arena) opera The Consoling Lotus of Jiangcheng (Chinese: 江城解語花; pinyin: jiang1 cheng2 jie3 yu3 hua1; Jyutping: gong1 sing4 gaai2 jyu5 faa1).

During the Japanese occupation of Hong Kong, Tang penned many scripts for his wife and her co-stars to stage in return for food (mostly rice) and found his footing eventually.

It was first staged by the New Voice Opera Troupe of Yam and then adapted for a film (released 5 March 1950) starring Tang's close personal friend Luo Pinchao.

His first script for film production was [2] The Tolling Bell (1940) with the help of Ng Cho-fan who in 1989 described how sick Tang looked the afternoon before collapsing in the Lee Theatre.

[Note 1]Ng Cho-fanUpon the divorce in 1941/2, Tang started working mostly with Chan Kam Tong (1906-1981) (陳錦棠) to make ends meet.

There is only one title Red Silk Shoes and The Murder, with no fighting scene at all, Tang wrote for Chan in 1957 is still popular today.

The end of Second Sino-Japanese War started the busiest decade, until films took over, of the 1900s in Hong Kong and SE Asia as a whole for Cantonese opera.

His archrival was husband of an actress who is famous for mostly fighting scenes although she was also known by fellow performers as great old-school vocalist as Lady White Snake.

[7] The Immortal Zhang Yuqiao (the Most Respectable Courtesan) (萬世流芳張玉喬)[Note 1]#11 of #30was a milestone in his career when he was asked to help an academic Jian Youwen (簡又文教授) in 1954 for the Sun Yim Yeung Troupe.

[8] The brutal blow to Tang's ego resulted in the first sign of enlightenment, better crafted lines spoken by the husband Cai Yong (蔡伯喈) in ending scene of The Story of the Lute in early 1956.

Tang, in and out of[Note 1] hospital for his heart problem, was rumored to be mixing alcohol with coffee as he encountered writer's block in these four years.

The audience laughed out loud when a female lead delivered her line about her character being 15/16 years old only in some of the biggest stage productions in 2000s Hong Kong.

The costume design, bag lady in high price fabric, did not provide the kind of support needed to fight gravity and therefore did not help either.

As such, what did not happen was the film Dream of Red Chamber[Note 5] directed by Lau Hak Suen and produced by a new[11] production company (興友影業公司), with Yam as Jia Baoyu[12] along with:- [Note 1]#18 of #30Notwithstanding the excellent track record of such a classic novel, Tang's 1956 The Dream of the Red Chamber did not register with the audience even though the male lead, Yam Kim Fai (Yam), had been very well-received[Note 6] for over a decade as Jia Baoyu already since the debut of another version of same title in Macau.

In 1964, Yam basically put Loong up against Xu Yulan (27 December 1921 – 19 April 2017),[13] the then contemporary best known Jia Baoyu from a 1962 Chinese opera film, having her student with only a year of training to debut as such character.

[Note 5] Without cult of personality, Yam became known as Hei Mai Ching Yan (theatre fans' lover)[9] under such circumstances.

Repertoire by chronological order of debut:- 「紫釵記連滿十晚 心神反惴惴不安 再臨隋智永千字文真書一過以養性怡情 而下筆常有仿佛之感 固知氣燥性浮 尚須勤於修養也滌生識」「紫釵記已脫稿今演至第十四晚仍能滿座 但心神欠佳 惴惴然不知所因 臨米海嶽跋河南 摹蘭亭絹本真跡 亦有手不從心之感 誠為孫過庭書譜有言意 違勢屈焉能稱意也」On air for the 50th anniversary of Tang's passing, Lau Tin Chi (劉天賜) commented in 2009 how "unreasonably grumpy, ill-tempered (Chinese: 狼戾; Jyutping: long1 lai2)" the debut female lead had been in this character to him.

Those grew up in the 1960s in Hong Kong keep this running in full force on various platforms funded by the general public, particularly those more talented students, to promote teachers' own status.)

It started with the 1976 film Princess Chang Ping directed by John Woo and ended with the next low-budget production by director Lee Tit.

Ng Kwun Lai was an up-and-coming performer who just hit big with her martial agility in the breakthrough role of Leang Hung-yuk (meaning Red Jade) in How Liang Hongyu's War Drum Caused the Jin Army to Retreat (1956) when Tang was ready to help her excel as "verdant-robed girls" (qingyi).

[18] To commemorate the 30th anniversary of Tang's passing, Ng (without any successor to carry water for her) put five titles of their collaboration on stage in Hong Kong City Hall from 4 to 8 in June 1989.

Original male lead for most of these titles was Ho Fei Fan, a well-known vocalist who held his own court and one of the very few actors who successfully portrayed Jia Baoyu.

Actors of a generation (known to have extramarital affairs or as adulterers off stage), except only one recently, found such move of a hot-blooded young man, a scholar, to be scandalous.

A simple way to put it, but not her words, could be:「生笙不識，生生不熄！」Book deals, interviews on TV or radio, by the Press in general, academics' researches, former acquaintances, etc.