Huang Yebai (16 January 1917 – 4 September 1999), who also wrote under the pen name Zhang Guan, was born in Shanghai and graduated from the Shanghai Xinhua Academy of Fine Arts before entering journalism: he edited the Shanghai evening paper Huamei Wanbao, founded the paper Cheng Bao in Shanghai, and served as editor-in-chief of the Hong Kong-based Shanghai Daily — one of the few Hong Kong film figures to span journalism, publicity and production. He began working in film in Hong Kong in 1952 as publicity manager for Yung Hwa Motion Pictures, staying in that role after the studio was taken over by International and then reorganised first as Motion Picture & General Investment (MP & GI) and finally as Cathay Organisation (Hong Kong) (1965). He headed publicity at Cathay for some sixteen years, controlling the public face of its films and stars — a period when Mandarin Hong Kong pictures were being exported across Malaya, Singapore and Taiwan — and carried its output and stars to those markets, before leaving in 1969 for a short spell at Shaw Brothers (Hong Kong) Ltd. In 1970 he founded New Century Pictures, producing four films including My Beloved Wife (1970) and The Lying Husband (1971); in 1974 he founded Man Sing Pictures, which produced three films, among them The Strange Hero (1973) and The Blazing Sun (1974); both companies turned out chiefly Mandarin pictures in the melodramatic and comic vein he had known at Cathay. From 1966 to 1973 he chaired the Hong Kong and Kowloon Film and Theatre Free Association, and for work that included founding a Mandarin Film Appreciation Week he received commendations from the Taiwan government and two Golden Horse Awards from the island's education and cultural authorities. He died in 1999.
Moving from journalism into film, Huang ran publicity for Yung Hwa, International, MP&GI and Cathay through the golden age of Mandarin Hong Kong cinema; his own studios, New Century and Man Sing, produced a string of Mandarin pictures, and his Mandarin Film Appreciation Week linked Hong Kong and Taiwan film circles in the 1950s–70s.
Achievements
- 1952 · Became publicity manager at Yung Hwa Motion Pictures
- 1966 · Chaired the Hong Kong and Kowloon Film and Theatre Free Association from 1966 to 1973
- 1970 · Founded New Century Pictures, producing films including My Beloved Wife
- 1974 · Founded Man Sing Pictures, producing The Strange Hero and The Blazing Sun