page_title: Lai Man-Wai
section_title: Biography
hierarchical_section_title: Lai Man-Wai / Biography
caption_attribution_description: English: Director Li Minwei (left), photographer Liang Linguang (middle), and director Hou Yao (right), in the 1920s 中文（简体）‎: 黎民伟、梁林光、侯曜在20年代
context_page_description: Lai Man-Wai, 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 played the role of the wife, partly due to the reluctance of women to participate in show business at the time.
context_section_description: Born in Japan, of Xinhui, Guangdong origin and raised in Hong Kong, he joined Sun Yat-sen's Kuomintang party in 1911 and helped make anti-warlord movies. He was an active director during the golden years of the Shanghai movie industry from 1921 to 1928. In 1923, he founded the China Sun Motion Picture Company with his brother, Lai Pak-Hoi, in Hong Kong which later relocated to Shanghai. In 1930, he co-founded one of the "Big Three" studios of the 1930s, Lianhua Film Company, with Lo Ming Yau. Lianhua, together with other leading Shanghai studios, was destroyed when the Empire of Japan attacked Shanghai in 1937. Lai returned to Hong Kong in 1938 and retired.
  He was married to Lim Cho Cho, a Vancouver-born actress. His daughter Lai Suen and granddaughter Gigi Lai are both actresses.
caption: Lai Man-Wai (left), with photographer Liang Linguang (middle) and director Hou Yao (right), in the 1920s
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