Huang Yanpei is a Chinese historical television series based on the life of Huang Yanpei, a prominent educator, industrialist and politician who was also one of the founders of the China Democratic League. Directed by Hong Baosheng and Zhao Lei, the series starred Zhang Tielin as the eponymous character. The series was first broadcast on CCTV-8 in China on 27 May 2010.
Zhang Tielin as Huang YanpeiTang Guoqiang as Mao ZedongLiu Jin as Zhou EnlaiMa Xiaowei as Chiang Kai-shekGu Wei as Chen YiZheng Weili as Wang JiusiHao Yang as Yao WeijunMi Xuedong as Du YueshengZhang Wei as Zhuang ZiyunLiu Yibing as Wang QingliXiao Daiqing as Shang YiminSun Meng as Sun YutangLei Zhenyu as Shi LiangcaiLiu Xin as Shao LiziMa Rui as Lin SuyuLi Yusheng as Lu HemeiLiu Jingfan as Zuo ShunshengWang Shiwen as Wang ShijieGai Mei as Leng YuPeng Guobin as Huang JingwuWan Bin as Ding DaliXu Guangming as Wu ZhongyouLi Zhi as Yang ChengqiYu Yang as Zhang ZhizhongCheng Cheng as Huang Yanpei's sonWang Jianjun as Gu ShouchengHou Tongjiang as Yang SishengSui Cunyi as Lai XiaodongZheng Xilong as Yu A'shunFu Xiaobo as Yu GuoquanBai Hongbiao as Gu JunfanQi Xiaoxiao as Huang Yanpei's daughterLiu Di as secret agency leaderYan Fengqi as Zhu DeXiao Guilin as Peng DehuaiZhou Yemang as Sun Yat-senSong Weihua as Wang RuofeiLin Xin as Soong Ching-lingLi Ou as Fan WenlanLi Bao'an as Gang YejinShen Tian as Assistant XuQi Zixuan as Worker LiZhao Baozhu as Driver MaLuo Yuan as LanhuaLiang Song as Cai YuanpeiAn Ruiyun as Zhang JianBai Qiulin as Cheng DequanZhang Dongqiang as Zhang ZhidongLiu Jun as Zhang XueliangChoenyi Tsering as ReporterLong as William BurkeZhang Jinliang as Chu FuchengCao Yuzhou as Zhang BojunZhang Hongtao as Fu SinianZhang Rihui as Hu JuewenChen Zhenghua as Liang ShumingLi Qiaoke as Sun QimengWang Yingming as Zhang QunAn Limin as Wang GenzhongWan Zheng as Pan HannianLiao Chongru as Zou TaofenYang Chong as Zou JialiuZhao Lei as Ino OsamuLiu Xiaoxi as Wang JingweiFeng Boming as TeshimaThomas as Thomas EdisonZhou Qing as Guard commanderWang Weiwei as WardenAround March 2009, when Huang Yanpei was still in production, it elicited strong criticism from Huang Fangyi (黄方毅), one of Huang Yanpei's sons. Huang Fangyi wrote on an online blog that his family members were extremely displeased with the historical inaccuracies and errors in the television series, and that they strongly objected to Zhang Tielin portraying his father on screen. Huang Fangyi further described in the following points:
Zhang Tielin's image and temperament, including his speech (Zhang speaks with a strong Tianjin accent), did not match Huang Yanpei's. Zhang is well known to audiences as a comedy actor, so it is inappropriate for him to portray Huang Yanpei, who is known to be a serious man. It is also ironic and disrespectful to allow an actor of non-Chinese citizenship — Zhang took up British citizenship in 1997 — to portray Huang Yanpei, who is known for his deep patriotism.Huang Yanpei's extramarital affair with Lin Suyu, a fictional character, in the television series is an insult to his moral character. The romance is a form of "low class" trivia.Huang Yanpei was a vegetarian for most of his life. However, in one scene, he is shown eating maoxuewang, a Sichuan dish made of pig's blood.It is inappropriate for fictional characters such as Zhuang Ziyun and Shang Yimin to play significant roles in Huang Yanpei's life.The television series did not accurately reflect the struggles in Huang Yanpei's life. Some events in Huang's life deviated largely from how they were in actual history, such as his contributions to education and the economy. Huang's relationship with the Communist Party was inaccurately portrayed.Huang Fangyi mentioned that he wrote to the producers, providing suggestions for changes to be made. However, except for some kind words, he did not receive any further response from them. He was not satisfied as he felt that the television series deeply affected his family emotionally, and said that they would continue to protest.
