Lai Man-wai | |||
|---|---|---|---|
 Lai in 1913 in Zhuangzi Tests His Wife | |||
| Born | 25 September 1893 | ||
| Died | 26 October 1953 (aged 60) | ||
| Occupation | Film director | ||
| Known for | Father of Hong Kong Cinema | ||
| Spouses | |||
| Children | Lai Hang (1928-1965) Lai Suen (b.1931) | ||
| Relatives | Lai Cheuk-cheuk (niece) Gigi Lai (grand-daughter) | ||
| Chinese name | |||
| Traditional Chinese | 黎民偉 | ||
| Simplified Chinese | 黎民伟 | ||
| |||
Lai Man-wai (Chinese: 黎民偉; pinyin: Li Minwei; 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 played the role of the wife, partly due to the reluctance of women to participate in show business at the time.
Born in Yokohama, 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.