Bowie Lam
Actor and drummer Bowie Lam has worked in the entertainment industry for more than two decades, and is best known for his prolific work on TVB dramas. He tells Andrea Lo about growing up in Hong Kong, philosophy on social media, and being star-struck by Chow Yun-fat.
I’ve spent all my life in Hong Kong. I grew up in To Kwa Wan and went to school in Kowloon.
When I was younger, because my family wasn’t well off, I didn’t necessarily have a lot of things that other children had.
Growing up, I wanted to be a pilot. I lived by Kai Tak Airport, and saw airplanes all the time. I have good childhood memories from it. Something that I still remember to this day was a toy airplane that I really, really wanted. It was impossible because my family couldn’t afford it. There was a stand for the airplane that made it look like it was flying. You pressed a button and it slowly raised itself up to the air. It was just so irresistible.
If I could choose to do anything now [other than be an actor] I would be a pilot. Every time I fly in an airplane, I have to sit by the window. I really enjoy seeing the clouds, sunrise and sunset, and the houses below. I’m not scared of heights. I feel like it’s a rare opportunity to be up there with those views.
I was a rebel when I was growing up. Once, I hid on purpose for my mom to look for me. She kept calling out for me and I thought it was so exciting to hide from her. At the time, there were a lot of child kidnappers, and my mom thought I had been abducted. I didn’t realize how worried they were. I eventually got tired and came out of hiding.
When I started working, I had a lot of friends who moved out to live on their own. I was the opposite. I felt I should be living with my parents. My mother passed away seven years ago, and I live with my father to this day.