Hou Yao (1903–1942), courtesy name Yixing, was born in Panyu, Guangdong, and studied education at Southeastern University in Nanjing; he was a director, screenwriter and film theorist of early Chinese cinema and an early member of the Literary Research Society, drawing on subjects that ranged from romance to social issues to national affairs. He went from Guangdong to Shanghai to study in 1920. In 1924 he joined Shanghai's Great Wall Film Manufacturing Company as head of screenwriting and director, making The Discarded Wife, adapted from a play he had written as a student, along with Spring Boudoir Dream and The Hypocrite. In 1925 he published Methods of Writing Shadow-Play Scripts, the first book in China devoted to film screenwriting, and joined Lai Man-wai's Minxin Film Company, for which he directed The God of Peace (1926), The Poet of the Sea and Romance of the Western Chamber (1927), the last based on Wang Shifu's zaju play and produced by Lai Man-wai, and among the first Chinese films shown abroad. He directed Mulan Joins the Army in 1928, starring Li Dandan. He taught briefly in Tianjin in 1929, wrote and directed The New Grievance of the Palace at Lianhua's Beijing branch in 1932, and in 1933 went south to Hong Kong to direct Foolish Servant Worships Longevity. After the outbreak of the Sino-Japanese War he made anti-Japanese films such as Flesh and Blood Great Wall, The Final Moment and Storm over the Pacific, and founded the Culture Film Company. Hired by Shaw Brothers in 1940, he went to Singapore to direct several Malay-language films. After Singapore fell in February 1942 he was arrested and killed by Japanese troops during the Great Inspection, aged 39. His dates of birth and death are variously given; the Hong Kong Film Archive adopts 1903–1942.
Hou's Methods of Writing Shadow-Play Scripts (1925) was the first Chinese book on film screenwriting and long served as a reference for early filmmakers, while his Romance of the Western Chamber (1927) was among the first Chinese films shown abroad, bringing Shanghai's silent cinema before Western audiences.
Achievements
- 1924 · Joined the Great Wall Film company as head of screenwriting and directed The Discarded Wife
- 1925 · Published Methods of Writing Shadow-Play Scripts, China's first book on film screenwriting
- 1928 · Directed Mulan Joins the Army, starring Li Dandan
- 1942 · Captured and killed by Japanese troops in Singapore after the city fell