Hou Yao
Hou Yao | ||
---|---|---|
Hanyu Pinyin | Hóu Yào |
Hou Yao (1903–1942) was a pioneering Chinese film director,
After the Empire of Japan invaded China in 1937, Hou Yao wrote and directed a series of patriotic films against Japanese aggression. In 1942, he was murdered by the Japanese during the Sook Ching massacre in Singapore.
Biography
Hou Yao was born in 1903 in
After graduating in 1924, Hou joined the Great Wall Film Company in Shanghai, where he adapted The Discarded Wife into a film, which he co-directed with Li Zeyuan. It was Great Wall's first film. He then wrote the scripts for the films In the Dream of Loved Ones (1925) and The Star-Plucking Girl (1925), and directed Cupid's Dolls (1925, co-directed with Mei Xuechou) and The Hypocrite (1926).[1] Each of his films of this period sought to reflect a social issue, such as women's rights, marriage, and war.[2] Along with his wife Pu Shunqing, he was a strong advocate for gender equality, acknowledged as the Chinese Henrik Ibsen.[3]
In 1925, Hou Yao published Techniques of Writing Shadowplay Scripts, the first theory book on Chinese filmmaking.
Hou went to
In 1937, the
In 1940, Hou moved to
Legacy
Hou Yao is considered a pioneer of
Hou Yao's assistant Fei Mu later became one of China's most celebrated directors.[4]
Personal life
Hou Yao married twice, and both his wives became women film pioneers.[3] He was first married to Pu Shunqing, his schoolmate at Southeast University. A playwright and screenwriter who worked with Hou on many projects, Pu is considered China's first woman screenwriter.[11][12] In the 1930s, he married his assistant scriptwriter Wan Hoi-ling (Chinese: 尹海靈), who became one of Hong Kong's first women directors, but probably never formally divorced Pu.[3]
References
- ^ a b Ye & Zhu 2012, p. 76.
- ^ a b c 侯曜 [Hou Yao] (in Chinese). Shanghai Municipal Government. Retrieved 10 June 2015.
- ^ a b c Bettinson 2015, p. 110.
- ^ a b Rojas & Chow 2013, p. 63.
- ^ a b c d e Ye & Zhu 2012, p. 77.
- ^ Zhang 2012, p. 31.
- ^ a b 早期香港电影──国防电影与侯曜 [Early Hong Kong cinema — National Defence Film and Hou Yao]. Ta Kung Pao (in Chinese). 13 February 2014.
- ^ a b c d Zhang 2012, p. 30.
- ^ Bettinson 2015, p. 112.
- ^ Zhang 2012, p. 26.
- ^ S. Louisa Wei. "Pu Shunqing". Women Film Pioneers Project. Columbia University. Retrieved 10 June 2015.
- ^ Wang 2013, p. 332.
Bibliography
- Bettinson, Gary (2015). Directory of World Cinema: CHINA 2. Bristol: Intellect Books. ISBN 978-1-78320-400-7.
- Rojas, Carlos; Chow, Eileen (2013). The Oxford Handbook of Chinese Cinemas. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-976560-7.
- Wang, Lingzhen (2013). Chinese Women's Cinema: Transnational Contexts. Columbia University Press. ISBN 978-0-231-52744-6.
- Ye, Tan; Zhu, Yun (2012). Historical Dictionary of Chinese Cinema. Rowman & Littlefield. ISBN 978-0-8108-6779-6.
- Zhang, Yingjin (2012). A Companion to Chinese Cinema. John Wiley & Sons. ISBN 978-1-4443-3029-8.