Jiajun Qian

He was the creator of a number of Chinas earliest and awardwinning cartoons including A deer with nine colors Why are the crows black? and Baby tadpoles look for their mother. Though not as famous as most of his students dubbed as the golden generation of Chinas animation industry Qian was regarded as one of the important industry founders. Born in 1916 Jiangsu Province Qian developed a great interest in literature and art. In 1935 he graduated from Suzhou Fine Arts College and became a professional cartoon artist. He used to work as the director of Chongqing Educational Film Animation Studio the board director of an animation school in Hong Kong and the director of China Film Production Factory in the Republic of China 19111949. After 1949 he was hired by Shanghai Animation Film Studio as its art designer director and leading technician. Meanwhile he also took jobs as professors in various art and film schools. In 1940 his maiden animation Happiness in Peasant Family a black and white movie with soundtracks won wide accolade in the fallen country during the antiJapanese Aggression War 19371945. The film was hailed as a parallel with the contemporary patriotic cartoon The River all in Red produced by the famous animation pioneers Wan brothers. With profound skills in Chinese water painting Qian was regarded as the first generation of the artists working for the Shanghai Animation Film Studio after the founding of the Peoples Republic of China in 1949. Though he wasnt the industrys iconic figure during that time his contribution to the animation industry was impressive. Many techniques were created from his ideas that he had proven to work with numerous experiments one of his old colleagues said. Qian died of lung infection on August 15 2011 at the age of 95. Before his passing Qian said that death eventually comes to everyone so there was no need to fight or argue and it was enough to leave others a good impression.