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
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{{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