Lai Hang (; 1928 – 9 February 1965) was a Chinese actor who began his acting career at age 4.

Early life

Lai was born in

Shanghai Shanghai, Shanghainese: , Standard Chinese pronunciation: is a direct-administered municipality and the most populous urban area in China. The city is located on the Chinese shoreline on the southern estuary of the Yangtze River, with the ...

, Republic of China. Lai's parents were Japanese-born filmmaker

Lai Man-wai Lai Man-wai (; September 25, 1893 – October 26, 1953), also romanised as Lay Min-wei or M.W. Ray, considered the "Father of Hong Kong Cinema", was the director of the first Hong Kong film '' Zhuangzi Tests His Wife'' in 1913. In the film, Lai ...

and Canadian-born actress

Lim Cho Cho Florence Lim (21 January 1905 – 16 February 1979), better known as Lim Cho-cho, was a Chinese Canadian actress in the cinema of the Republic of China and British Hong Kong from 1925 to 1954. She was the second wife of filmmaker Lai Man-Wai and ...

Career

Lai appeared in many films with his mother in the 1930s. One of Lai's most notable roles was in '' The Goddess'' (1934), which was voted one of the top 30 Chinese films of all time at the 2005

Hong Kong Film Awards The Hong Kong Film Awards (HKFA; ), founded in 1982, is an annual film awards ceremony in Hong Kong. The ceremonies typically take place in April, and have mostly been held at the Grand Theatre of the Hong Kong Cultural Centre since 1991. The a ...

Personal life

Lai Hang was also known as Henry Lai, Henry Lai Hang, and Li Keng. Though his parents both resided in Hong Kong after the

Chinese Communist Revolution The Chinese Communist Revolution was a social revolution, social and political revolution in China that began in 1927 and culminated with the proclamation of the People's Republic of China (PRC) in 1949. The revolution was led by the Chinese C ...

, Lai chose to remain in

mainland China "Mainland China", also referred to as "the Chinese mainland", is a Geopolitics, geopolitical term defined as the territory under direct administration of the People's Republic of China (PRC) in the aftermath of the Chinese Civil War. In addit ...

to dedicate himself to the Communist cause. He was attacked in 1963 during the

Socialist Education Movement __NOTOC__ The Socialist Education Movement (, abbreviated 社教运动 or 社教運動), also known as the Four Cleanups Movement () was a 1963–1965 movement launched by Mao Zedong in the People's Republic of China. Mao sought to remove reactio ...

because his older sister Lai Lan lived in Taiwan with her husband

Shen Chang-huan Shen Chang-huan (; 16 October 1913 – 2 July 1998) was a Taiwanese politician and diplomat. He is the longest-serving Minister of Foreign Affairs in Taiwan's history, in office for a cumulative total of over twelve years from 1960 to 1966 and ...

, who was a high-ranking

Republic of China Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia. The main geography of Taiwan, island of Taiwan, also known as ''Formosa'', lies between the East China Sea, East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocea ...

diplomat. Lai's marriage also fell apart, and in 1965 Lai Hang committed suicide by hanging himself from a tree.

Filmography

Film

References

External links

* * {{Authority control 1928 births 1965 deaths Lingnan University (Guangzhou) alumni Chinese male silent film actors Chinese male film actors 20th-century Chinese male actors Male actors from Shanghai Suicides in the People's Republic of China Suicides by hanging in China Chinese male child actors 1965 suicides