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 "title": "To Be or Not To Be (来生不做香港人)",
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 "excerpt": "To Be or Not To Be (來生不做香港人), formerly Hakka Women, is a 2014 25-episode HKTV drama directed by Luk Tin Wah, starring Maggie Cheung and Prudence Liew as sisters separated between Dongguan and Hong Kong, HKTV's highest-rated series.",
 "snippet": "To Be or Not To Be (來生不做香港人), formerly Hakka Women, is a 2014 25-episode HKTV drama directed by Luk Tin Wah, starring Maggie Cheung and Prudence Liew as sisters separated between Dongguan and Hong Kong, HKTV's highest-rated series.",
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 "markdown": "# To Be or Not To Be (来生不做香港人)\n\n**To Be or Not To Be** (来生不做香港人) is a 25-episode Hong Kong television drama produced by Hong Kong Television Network (HKTV) and first broadcast on 12 December 2014. Under its former and overseas title *Hakka (Chinese ethnic subgroup with its own language) Women* (客家女人), it follows two sisters separated in childhood, one raised in a Hakka village in Dongguan and the other in Hong Kong, whose reunion frames three decades of change in the relationship between Hong Kong and mainland China.<sup>[1](https://mcihk2015.blogspot.com/2015/03/online-review-to-be-or-not-to-be.html)</sup><sup> • </sup><sup>[2](https://www.thetvdb.com/series/to-be-or-not-to-be-1)</sup><sup> • </sup><sup>[3](https://etvhk.fandom.com/wiki/%E4%BE%86%E7%94%9F%E4%B8%8D%E5%81%9A%E9%A6%99%E6%B8%AF%E4%BA%BA)</sup>\n\n| Key fact | Detail |\n|---|---|\n| Original title | 来生不做香港人 (To Be or Not To Be); former and overseas title 客家女人 (*Hakka Women* / *Hakka Sisters*)<sup>[3](https://etvhk.fandom.com/wiki/%E4%BE%86%E7%94%9F%E4%B8%8D%E5%81%9A%E9%A6%99%E6%B8%AF%E4%BA%BA)</sup> |\n| Production | Hong Kong Television Network; director Luk Tin Wah (陆天华), creative producer Stella Choi (蔡淑贤), script supervisor Alex Pau (鲍伟聪)<sup>[4](https://llsmusings.blogspot.com/2015/01/review-of-hktv-series-to-be-or-not-to-be.html)</sup> |\n| Broadcast | Premiered 12 December 2014 in Hong Kong (11 December 2014 in Malaysia); 25 episodes<sup>[5](https://movie.douban.com/subject/20388226//)</sup> |\n| Lead cast | Maggie Cheung (张可颐), Prudence Liew (刘美君), Poon Chan Leung (潘灿良), Savio Tsang (曾伟权), Lam Lei (林利), Zac Koo (高皓正), Mimi Kung (龚慈恩)<sup>[5](https://movie.douban.com/subject/20388226//)</sup> |\n| Audience | About 270,000 viewers, one of HKTV's highest-rating dramas; Douban score 8.0 from 2,061 users<sup>[6](https://news.now.com/home/entertainment/player?newsId=150805)</sup><sup> • </sup><sup>[5](https://movie.douban.com/subject/20388226//)</sup> |\n| Theme | The reunion of two sisters separated between mainland China and Hong Kong, tracing 30 years of Hong Kong–Mainland relations<sup>[2](https://www.thetvdb.com/series/to-be-or-not-to-be-1)</sup> |\n\n## Spoilers\n\n### Plot and themes\n\nThe story centers on two biological sisters born in a Hakka village. Their mother worked in Hong Kong as a housekeeper and arranged for one daughter to migrate there; a change of plan meant the younger sister went to Hong Kong while the elder stayed in the village to care for their mother after a stroke. The sisters then spent roughly thirty years living apart, one becoming a Hong Kong professional and the other a wealthy businesswoman on the mainland, before reuniting as adults.<sup>[10](https://tvbandthailakorns.wordpress.com/2015/01/16/on-to-be-or-not-to-be/)</sup><sup> • </sup><sup>[11](https://www.tvmao.com/drama/LiM2aS0%3D)</sup>\n\nThrough this reunion the series stages the cultural frictions of the period: simplified versus traditional [Chinese characters](https://www.edgepedia.org/chinese-characters), Hong Kong companies entering the mainland market, differing attitudes toward contracts and personal connections, and the mutual vanity and insecurity each side projects onto the other.<sup>[12](https://swa0614.pixnet.net/blog/posts/10251343364)</sup> Early episodes gave the Hong Kong sister dialogue that struck viewers as speaking for Hong Kong people, including lines about Hong Kong remaining a place that uses traditional Chinese characters and about being \"poor with nothing left but money\".<sup>[6](https://news.now.com/home/entertainment/player?newsId=150805)</sup> A younger generation of characters participates in street demonstrations, which reviewers connected to the protest movements of contemporary Hong Kong.<sup>[1](https://mcihk2015.blogspot.com/2015/03/online-review-to-be-or-not-to-be.html)</sup>\n\nThe title itself poses the series' closing question: in an era of Hong Kong–Mainland integration, whether one would choose to be a Hong Kong person in the next life, or whether the distinction between Hong Kong people and [Chinese people](https://www.edgepedia.org/chinese-people) will eventually disappear.<sup>[2](https://www.thetvdb.com/series/to-be-or-not-to-be-1)</sup>\n\n## Production background\n\nThe series was shot in 2012 and 2013, before HKTV's application for a free-to-air television license was refused, and it reached audiences only after the company launched as an online streaming station.<sup>[7](https://www.inmediahk.net/%E7%94%9F%E6%B4%BB/%E5%BE%88%E4%B8%8D%E9%8C%AF%E7%9A%84%E4%BE%86%E7%94%9F%E4%B8%8D%E5%81%9A%E9%A6%99%E6%B8%AF%E4%BA%BA)</sup> Script supervisor Alex Pau said the production team never treated the subject matter as too sensitive, arguing that the word \"sensitive\" promotes a self-censorship mindset and that a drama's most important job is to reflect reality and resonate with audiences.<sup>[8](https://llsmusings.blogspot.com/2015/01/hktv-launch-interview-with-brains.html)</sup>\n\n**Location work.** Unlike comparable period dramas, the production used real locations, filming in a rural village in Dongguan for the mainland scenes.<sup>[9](https://www.newton.com.tw/wiki/%E4%BE%86%E7%94%9F%E4%B8%8D%E5%81%9A%E9%A6%99%E6%B8%AF%E4%BA%BA)</sup> Cinematographer-turned-commentator accounts note that this gave the historical passages a texture that studio-bound productions lacked.<sup>[9](https://www.newton.com.tw/wiki/%E4%BE%86%E7%94%9F%E4%B8%8D%E5%81%9A%E9%A6%99%E6%B8%AF%E4%BA%BA)</sup>\n\n## Reception\n\nThe drama was HKTV's highest-rated series after the station's launch and drew discussion among internet users in both Hong Kong and mainland China.<sup>[5](https://movie.douban.com/subject/20388226//)</sup> Hong Kong media counted about 270,000 viewers, placing it among the station's top performers, and the launch-period lineup of *The Election* and *To Be or Not To Be* briefly lifted HKTV's audience to around 200,000 before later series saw ratings decline.<sup>[6](https://news.now.com/home/entertainment/player?newsId=150805)</sup><sup> • </sup><sup>[13](https://m.fx361.com/news/2015/0403/208698.html)</sup> On Douban it holds a score of 8.0 from 2,061 users.<sup>[5](https://movie.douban.com/subject/20388226//)</sup>\n\n**Critical views.** Reviewers praised the lead performances, particularly Prudence Liew's role and the pairing of [Maggie Cheung](https://www.edgepedia.org/maggie-cheung) and Poon Chan Leung, and the theme song 两杯茶, sung by Liew with lyrics by [Lin Xi](https://www.edgepedia.org/lin-xi), was popular enough that HKTV uploaded a full music video to YouTube on 2 January 2015.<sup>[14](https://dramapot.com/2015/1229/farewellhktv2-reviews/)</sup><sup> • </sup><sup>[3](https://etvhk.fandom.com/wiki/%E4%BE%86%E7%94%9F%E4%B8%8D%E5%81%9A%E9%A6%99%E6%B8%AF%E4%BA%BA)</sup> Critics also noted weaknesses: one commentator called the plot conventional, \"TVB stuff\", even while praising its convincing portrayal of middle-class Central professionals; the director of HKTV's *The Election* argued that even openly political HKTV dramas, including this one, stopped short of deeper ideological critique.<sup>[15](https://collection.news/thestandnews/articles/20049)</sup><sup> • </sup><sup>[16](https://collection.news/thestandnews/articles/19456)</sup> Alex Pau later said that if HKTV had been a free-to-air station he would have re-shot the ending so the series concluded during the Umbrella Movement.<sup>[17](https://collection.news/thestandnews/articles/1559)</sup>\n\n## Legacy\n\nBecause it was filmed in 2012–2013 but aired in late 2014, viewers remarked on how closely its story lines tracked events then unfolding in Hong Kong.<sup>[7](https://www.inmediahk.net/%E7%94%9F%E6%B4%BB/%E5%BE%88%E4%B8%8D%E9%8C%AF%E7%9A%84%E4%BE%86%E7%94%9F%E4%B8%8D%E5%81%9A%E9%A6%99%E6%B8%AF%E4%BA%BA)</sup> The series has since become a standard reference point in scholarship on Hong Kong identity: a 2021 master's thesis at [National Chengchi University](https://www.edgepedia.org/national-chengchi-university) analyzes it alongside the 1979 series *The Good, The Bad And The Ugly* (网中人) to examine how realistic Hong Kong television dramas shape local consciousness, finding that the portrayal of mainland China shifted from negative to positive across the decades the two dramas span.<sup>[18](https://thesis.lib.nccu.edu.tw/detail/413d9f215979e4eb777c092633c20d39/)</sup> Its mainland-born sister character has been compared with *网中人*'s \"Ah Chan\" as a recurring figure through which Hong Kong television stages conflict between new immigrants and locals.<sup>[19](https://storystudio.tw/article/gushi/%E5%9C%A8%E6%9C%AC%E5%9C%9F%E8%88%87%E4%B8%96%E7%95%8C%E4%B9%8B%E9%96%93%EF%BC%9A%E9%A6%99%E6%B8%AF%E9%9B%BB%E8%A6%96%E6%A5%AD%E7%9A%84%E5%89%8D%E4%B8%96%E4%BB%8A%E7%94%9F)</sup> In April 2020, HKTV re-released the series on YouTube alongside *The Election* and *The Menu* during the COVID-19 stay-home period.<sup>[20](https://www.esquirehk.com/lifestyle/hktvmall-hktv-3-hong-kong-tv-series)</sup>\n\n## References\n\n1. [Online Review: To Be or Not To Be (來生不做香港人), Media and Culture Industries in Hong Kong](https://mcihk2015.blogspot.com/2015/03/online-review-to-be-or-not-to-be.html)\n2. [To Be or Not To Be, TheTVDB.com](https://www.thetvdb.com/series/to-be-or-not-to-be-1)\n3. [來生不做香港人, 香港電視大典 (Fandom)](https://etvhk.fandom.com/wiki/%E4%BE%86%E7%94%9F%E4%B8%8D%E5%81%9A%E9%A6%99%E6%B8%AF%E4%BA%BA)\n4. [Review of HKTV series \"To Be or Not To Be\", LL's Musings](https://llsmusings.blogspot.com/2015/01/review-of-hktv-series-to-be-or-not-to-be.html)\n5. [来生不做香港人 (2014), 豆瓣](https://movie.douban.com/subject/20388226//)\n6. [〈娛樂乜乜乜〉10個HKTV的難忘時刻, Now新聞](https://news.now.com/home/entertainment/player?newsId=150805)\n7. [很不錯的來生不做香港人, 香港獨立媒體](https://www.inmediahk.net/%E7%94%9F%E6%B4%BB/%E5%BE%88%E4%B8%8D%E9%8C%AF%E7%9A%84%E4%BE%86%E7%94%9F%E4%B8%8D%E5%81%9A%E9%A6%99%E6%B8%AF%E4%BA%BA)\n8. [HKTV Launch: Interview with the 'brains' behind \"To Be or Not To Be\", LL's Musings](https://llsmusings.blogspot.com/2015/01/hktv-launch-interview-with-brains.html)\n9. [來生不做香港人, 中文百科全書](https://www.newton.com.tw/wiki/%E4%BE%86%E7%94%9F%E4%B8%8D%E5%81%9A%E9%A6%99%E6%B8%AF%E4%BA%BA)\n10. […On To Be Or Not To Be, TVB and Thai Lakorns](https://tvbandthailakorns.wordpress.com/2015/01/16/on-to-be-or-not-to-be/)\n11. [来生不做香港人剧情介绍, 电视猫](https://www.tvmao.com/drama/LiM2aS0%3D)\n12. [《來生不做香港人》1-11, PIXNET](https://swa0614.pixnet.net/blog/posts/10251343364)\n13. [\"老\"亚视将逝，\"新\"港视苦撑, 环球时报](https://m.fx361.com/news/2015/0403/208698.html)\n14. [Farewell HKTV Dramas, thanks for the memories (Part 2), DramaPot](https://dramapot.com/2015/1229/farewellhktv2-reviews/)\n15. [〖告別港視 3〗鄧小宇專訪, 立場新聞聞庫](https://collection.news/thestandnews/articles/20049)\n16. [〖告別港視 2〗《選戰》總導演回望, 立場新聞聞庫](https://collection.news/thestandnews/articles/19456)\n17. [〖來生不做表姐 ‧ 下〗他們的中港矛盾史, 立場新聞聞庫](https://collection.news/thestandnews/articles/1559)\n18. [陳頌誠 (2021). 香港電視劇與身份認同：以《網中人》及《來生不做香港人》爲例. 國立政治大學](https://thesis.lib.nccu.edu.tw/detail/413d9f215979e4eb777c092633c20d39/)\n19. [在本土與世界之間：香港電視業的過去、現在與未來, StoryStudio](https://storystudio.tw/article/gushi/%E5%9C%A8%E6%9C%AC%E5%9C%9F%E8%88%87%E4%B8%96%E7%95%8C%E4%B9%8B%E9%96%93%EF%BC%9A%E9%A6%99%E6%B8%AF%E9%9B%BB%E8%A6%96%E6%A5%AD%E7%9A%84%E5%89%8D%E4%B8%96%E4%BB%8A%E7%94%9F)\n20. [HKTV劇集YouTube重新上架, Esquire HK](https://www.esquirehk.com/lifestyle/hktvmall-hktv-3-hong-kong-tv-series)\n\n---\n*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Series and fictional screen worlds › International serial drama and telenovelas › East Asian drama series › Hong Kong and Taiwanese serial drama*\n\n*Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*\n\n*Copyright 2026 EdgeChat AI, a subsidiary of Biostate AI.*\n\nLicense: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license\n",
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 "speakable": "To Be or Not To Be, formerly Hakka Women, is a 2014 25-episode HKTV drama directed by Luk Tin Wah, starring Maggie Cheung and Prudence Liew as sisters separated between Dongguan and Hong Kong, HKTV's highest-rated series."
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