Wan Laiming

Wan Lai-Ming and his brothers Wan Gu-Chan, Wan Chao-Chen and Wan Di-Huan are the pioneers of the animation film industry in China. The first short animation film of China was Wan brothers' "Uproard in the Art Studio" (1928). Lai-Min, Gu-Chan and Chao-Chen are also responsible of the first talkie animation short film in China, "The Camel's Dance" (1935), and of the first animation long film in China, "Tieshan Gongzhu" ("Princess Iron Fan", 1941), which is the Part I of the novel "Journey to the West", the legend of the Monkey King Sun Wu-Kong/Son Goku. But the most colossal film of Wan Lai-Ming was "Da no tien gu" ("Uproar in Heaven", 1961-65), released in two parts and co-directed with Tang Cheng. It was the first animation film in color made in China, and it's a remake of "Princess Iron Fan". This was his second and last long feature film. Lai-Ming did a last short film with Yan Ding-Xian in 1965, "The Shanghai Youth Revolutionizes the Dance".