Biography

Hou Yao was born in 1903 in Panyu, Guangdong, China. He was a director and actor, known for Xi xiang ji (1927), Romance of the Pearl River (1937) and Cuo dian yuan yang (1938). He died in 1942 in Singapore.

One of China's most creative directors of the silent era, particularly in his use of special effects. With the coming of sound, he moved to Hong Kong and worked in early Cantonese dialect films, also becoming a studio head. His outspoken advocacy of resistance to Japanese aggression led to his arrest and execution by the Japanese army in Singapore in 1942.