Laiming Wan

Wan Laiming is one of the founders of China's animation industry. Together with his twin brothers Wan Gu Chan, Wan Chaochen and Wan Dihuan, he is known as the founder of Chinese animation films. Among the four brothers, Wan Laiming is the eldest and is respectfully called "Da Wan Lao".

Wan Laiming and his brothers taught themselves to paint at an early age, and in 1919 he joined the Commercial Press, where he and his four brothers developed animated films. In 1925, he and Di Gu Chan filmed the animated advertisement "Shu Zhendong Chinese Typewriter", which was the prototype of Chinese cartoons. In 1926, he joined the Great Wall Picture Company, and the four brothers filmed China's first cartoon "The Big Trouble Studio", in 1935 they made the first sound cartoon "Camel Dance", and in 1936 completed the animated feature film "Iron Fan Princess".

On the eve of the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949, he took refuge in Hong Kong, but felt that he could not use his talents there, so he returned to Shanghai in 1954 and directed animation films at the Shanghai Fine Arts Film Studio. From 1960 to 1964, he served as the director of the animated film "Havoc in Heaven", creating the pinnacle production in the history of Chinese animation. He is the author of "The Beauty of Human Expressions" and "The Beauty of Human Body Painting".

He died in Shanghai on November 7, 1997. He is buried in Fushou Garden, Qingpu District, Shanghai, and his tombstone bears the image of the Monkey King holding a golden hoop stick.