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Wan brothers

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This is the earliest known photo of 3 of the Wan brothers: Laiming, GuChan and ChaoChen. The pamphlet is made after 1941, since the cartoon character on the front is from Princess Iron Fan. They are promoted as 卡通作家 or "Cartoon Creators"

The Wan Brothers (Chinese: 萬氏兄弟) were 20th century animators born in Nanking, China.[1] They became the founders and pioneers of the Chinese animation industry[2] and made the first Asian animation feature-length film, Princess Iron Fan in 1941.[3]

Background

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The era in which the Wan brothers operated was a rather challenging one for building an industry.[4] The brothers lived through the Second Sino-Japanese War,[5] World War II and the Cultural Revolution. They also made the famous cartoon animation, Havoc in Heaven.

The brothers

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English Name Chinese Name Born Died
Wan Laiming 萬籟鳴 January 18, 1900 October 7, 1997
Wan Guchan 萬古蟾 November 19, 1995
Wan Chaochen 萬超塵 1906 October 28, 1992
Wan Dihuan 萬滌寰 1907 1990

Parents

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Their father was in the silk business. Their mother was a seamstress.

See also

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References

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  1. ^ "The universal biographical dictionary : or, an historical account of the lives, characters, and works of the most eminent persons in every age and nation from the earliest times to the present : particularly of Great Britain and Ireland" – via JSTOR. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  2. ^ Braaten, Rachel; Stokes, Lisa Odham (2020). Historical dictionary of Hong Kong cinema. Lisa Odham Stokes. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers. ISBN 978-1-5381-2062-0. OCLC 1119980097.
  3. ^ Zhou, Wenhai (2020). "Chinese Independent Animation". Palgrave Animation. doi:10.1007/978-3-030-40697-4. ISBN 9783030406974. ISSN 2523-8086. S2CID 218994949.
  4. ^ Sun, Lijun (2020). The History of Chinese Animation. Milton: Taylor & Francis Group. p. 18. ISBN 978-1-000-41627-5. OCLC 1237870952.
  5. ^ Zhang, Yingjin; Xiao, Zhiwei (1998). Encyclopedia of Chinese film. Zhiwei Xiao. London: Routledge. p. 351. ISBN 978-0-203-19555-0. OCLC 76898497.