Lai Pak-hoi or Li Beihai () (1889–1950) was a

Chinese Chinese may refer to: * Something related to China * Chinese people, people identified with China, through nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity **Han Chinese, East Asian ethnic group native to China. **'' Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic ...

actor An actor (masculine/gender-neutral), or actress (feminine), is a person who portrays a character in a production. The actor performs "in the flesh" in the traditional medium of the theatre or in modern media such as film, radio, and television. ...

and producer based in

Hong Kong Hong Kong)., Legally Hong Kong, China in international treaties and organizations. is a special administrative region of China. With 7.5 million residents in a territory, Hong Kong is the fourth most densely populated region in the wor ...

, and an early pioneer of the

Hong Kong film industry The cinema of Hong Kong ( zh, t=香港電影) is one of the three major threads in the history of Chinese-language cinema, alongside the cinema of China and the cinema of Taiwan. As a former Crown colony, British Hong Kong, Hong Kong had a g ...

Biography

Lai began his career as an actor, and was involved in one of the first films made in China, '' Stealing a Roast Duck'', a silent short directed by Liang Shaobo in 1909. The film was financed by the

Asia Film Company The Asia Film Company was the first film production company in China. History The Asia Film Company was established in Shanghai in 1909 by Russian born Jewish American businessman Benjamin Brosky (1877-1960), and was the first company to produce d ...

, owned an American cinematographer and producer, Benjamin Brodsky, allegedly predating '' Zhuangzi Tests His Wife'', although this has been disputed, since no records of the film remain. Lai was involved in the making of '' Zhuangzi Tests His Wife'', the first confirmed Hong Kong-produced film, acting as owner of the company that financed the film, the China-America Company. The China-America Company, or Hua Mei, was founded by Lai with his former colleague Brodsky and Lai's brother,

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 ...

. Lai, along with his brothers Lai Man-wai and Lai Hoi-shan, founded the first Chinese-owned production company in China, the

China Sun Motion Picture Company Minxin Film Company (), also known as China Sun Motion Picture Company Ltd. (1923–1930), was one of the earliest movie studios in the history of Chinese cinema and Hong Kong cinema. History Minxin was founded in 1922 by Lai Manwai. Becaus ...

. The British colonial government rejected their plans to build the studio in Hong Kong, so they were forced to do so in neighboring

Guangzhou Guangzhou, Chinese postal romanization, previously romanized as Canton or Kwangchow, is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Guangdong Provinces of China, province in South China, southern China. Located on the Pearl River about nor ...

in 1924. In 1925, Lai directed ''Rouge'', the region's first feature-length film. He also started the China Sound and Silent Movies Company, which released the first

Cantonese Cantonese is the traditional prestige variety of Yue Chinese, a Sinitic language belonging to the Sino-Tibetan language family. It originated in the city of Guangzhou (formerly known as Canton) and its surrounding Pearl River Delta. While th ...

talkie A sound film is a motion picture with synchronized sound, or sound technologically coupled to image, as opposed to a silent film. The first known public exhibition of projected sound films took place in Paris in 1900, but decades passed befo ...

, ''Conscience'', in Hong Kong in 1933. ''Conscience'' was only a partial sound film however, a full sound film, ''An Idiot Disturbs the House'', was released the same year. Lai left the Hong Kong film industry in 1935, and died later in 1950.

Legacy

Lai is commemorated with a star at the Avenue of Stars in

References

External links

Lai Bak-Hoi at hkmdb.com
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lai, Pak-hoi Hong Kong male actors 1889 births 1950 deaths Hong Kong film producers Chinese male silent film actors Chinese silent film directors Chinese emigrants to British Hong Kong