There is such an old man, during the war years, he was a hot-blooded young man, who replaced the gun with a paintbrush, walked through every corner of China in the most dangerous period of the Chinese nation, and used comic works to inspire people; in peacetime, he was an animation master, showing the national style with animation and creating the "Chinese genre". He was Tervey.
Old photo of Tewe
<h1>David Rowe of China</h1>
Te Wei, whose real name is Sheng Song, was born on August 22, 1915 in Shanghai to a wealthy family.
The solid and humorous atmosphere of the family gave Sheng Song a good childhood and also shaped his optimistic character. When he was a student, he liked to watch all kinds of opera, film drama, juggling performances, especially for movies, as long as there are new movies released, the cinema is always indispensable to his figure, the most time, he watched twenty-nine movies a month.
From 1928 onwards, Sheng Song's father's career began to decline, and the family also encountered financial difficulties, and Sheng Song dropped out of school before graduating from junior high school. By chance, he became interested in painting, working as an apprentice and draftsman in an advertising painting agency, painting advertisements in a pharmaceutical factory, and working as an art officer in a museum.
Later, a comic work entitled "Comparison of Chinese and Western Science" signed "Sheng Gongmu (Sheng Song's pen name at the time)" was published in the supplement of Shanghai's "News Daily", and Sheng Song became a rookie in the Shanghai comic industry.
At that time, Sheng Song was obsessed with the political satire cartoons created by the famous British cartoonist David Luo, combined with the needs of society, he began to take international current affairs comics as his main direction of attack, and also published works in newspapers and periodicals such as "Shanghai Comics" and "Big Evening News" under the name of "David", "Big Evening News", which aroused concern, and was once called China's "David Luo" by public opinion.
<h1>Use comics as a weapon</h1>
In the 1930s, after Japan's armed occupation of Northeast China in the 918 War, it invaded the territory of Northern China, and the national crisis deepened day by day. Patriotic cartoonists in Shanghai have aimed their brushes at Japanese imperialism and have successively created countless cartoons that reflect the anti-Japanese struggle.
After the July 7 Incident, the Shanghai Comics Salvation Association, which was affiliated with the Shanghai Literary and Art Circles Salvation Association, was established, taking "Saving the Dead Comics" as a position to publicize the anti-Japanese resistance. "On the Way to invade" and many other comic works.
Tevi Comics "In Short Supply"
In less than half a year, Shanghai fell, "Saving the Dead Comics" was suspended, and Te Wei joined the "Anti-Japanese Comic Propaganda Team" led by Ye Qianyu.
On September 18, 1937, the comic propaganda team launched the country's first anti-enemy comic exhibition at the Dahua Cinema at Xinjiekou in Nanjing, displaying more than 200 cartoons and propaganda posters that were produced in a hurry, and the visitors were in an endless stream, approaching 20,000 people per day, causing a strong social effect. After that, the ManXuan Brigade was included in the Political Training Department of the Military Commission.
On September 18, 1937, the Anti-Enemy Comics Exhibition was held in Nanjing
Soon, Nanjing fell and the team moved to Wuhan. While participating in the work of the comic propaganda team, Te Wei also served as the editor-in-chief of "Anti-War Comics", and successively published comic works such as "The Sound of Condemnation Cannot Cover Up the Sound of Cannons", "Shocking", and "Spiritual Mobilization Of Enemy Countries".
The work of the Chinese Propaganda Team also participated in the famous operation of the Chinese Air Force in 1938, the humanitarian bombing plan, and after the indiscriminate bombing of seventy Japanese aircraft in Wuhan, the Chinese military and civilians were indignant, and the Chinese Air Force originally proposed the plan to bomb the Japanese mainland instead distributing two million leaflets over Japan. This was the first time that Japan was attacked by a foreign plane at that time, and the manga industry wrote a glorious page in China's history. Tewe also did not expect that the brush in the hands of a cartoonist could exert such power.
The huge mural "The War of Resistance to the End" created by the Comic Propaganda Team (later destroyed by the Japanese army)
Later, the Kuomintang reactionaries were stepping up their anti-communism, the comic propaganda team was forced to disband, Te Wei and Zhang Luo, Ye Yiqun and other progressive figures stranded in Chongqing took refuge in Hong Kong to create cartoons for "Mass Life", organized the "New Art Painting Society" together with Zhang Guangyu, Huang Xinbo, Yu Feng, Hu Kao, Lu Zhiyu, Ding Cong, and others, and founded the "New Art Weekly" with The "Huashang Bao" edited by Huang Xinbo as Xia Yan, and also published two of his own albums, "Te Wei Satirical Painting Collection" and "Wind and Cloud Collection".
Tevi Comics "Stranded"
After the fall of Hong Kong, Te Wei moved to Guilin and Chongqing, and returned to Hong Kong again a few years later. In this battlefield behind enemy lines where people in the literary and art circles were gathered, Te Wei, together with woodcarvers and communists Xinbo, organized the "Human Painting Society" to gather the progressive painters stranded in Hong Kong, calling on everyone to pick up paintbrushes to expose the dark rule of the Kuomintang reactionaries, and to make a contribution to the propaganda of the Liberation War, which won the unanimous support of everyone.
This period can be said to be the heyday of Tewei's political comic creation. They met regularly, discussed artistic creations enthusiastically, held exhibitions, and set up a comic book research department to self-fund the publication "This Is a Comic Age" as a front to publish articles and works. The "Human Painting Society" soon became an activity center for artists in Hong Kong.
Tewe Comics "Stealing the Day"
<h1>The originator of ink animation</h1>
In 1949, Te Wei was introduced by Yuan Muzhi, director of the Central Film Administration, to work in the art film group of the Northeast Film Studio (now Changchun Film Studio).
In 1950, Tevi (front row, fourth from left) took a group photo at the Northeast Film Studio
At that time, in addition to The East Film Studio's art film team, in addition to Yong Yongren (Fang Ming) and his wife, there were only a few trainees in the training class, and their strength was very insufficient, but they had already made the puppet film "Emperor's Dream" and the animation film "Catching Turtles in the Urn".
After Te Wei arrived there, he constantly asked Fang Ming for some techniques and methods for making cartoons, and over time he fell in love with animation.
In the autumn of 1949, the first art film group of the People's Republic of China was formally established in the East Film Studio, with Te Wei as the leader. On March 24, 1950, Te wei led a team of only twenty-two people to move south to Shanghai, affiliated with the Shanghai Film Studio.
Te Wei's determination to create an animation film with Chinese characteristics stems from China's first color animation film "Why the Crow is Black" which won an international award.
In 1956, Qian Jiajun's "Why the Crow is Black" participated in the 8th Venice International Children's Film Exhibition and received praise from international peers, but because its animation style imitated the Traces of the Soviet cartoon "Gray Duck Neck", it was once mistaken for Soviet manufacturing.
Stills from Why the Crow Is Black
Although it is "Made in China", it does not have "Chinese charm", which makes Tewei and many staff members who have worked hard for it disappointed. Since then, Tewe has decided to do China's own cartoons.
In the same year, Te Wei directed the animation film "The Proud General", for which he led the main creative staff to Beijing, Shandong, Hebei and other places to collect a large number of ancient paintings, sculptures, architecture and other materials, and also went to the Dayu Tomb at the foot of the Huiji Mountain in Shaoxing, Zhejiang Province, to personally experience the ancient customs of more than 4,000 years ago.
Stills from The Proud General
This animation film takes Peking Opera as the main tone, from character modeling, background design to action, language, music and other aspects, it fully absorbs the traditional painting art and opera expression methods of China, and after its release, it has received rave reviews and taken the first step in animation with Chinese characteristics.
In 1957, the Shanghai Film Studio was reorganized into a joint venture Shanghai Film Studio, and the Shanghai Fine Arts Film Studio was established, with Te Wei as the first director.
At this time, there were nearly two hundred employees in the factory, and TeWei's friends in the art world, such as Huang Yongyu, Zhang Guangyu and other artists, were also willing to come to help, and the strength of the us film studio was greatly enhanced for a while.
In January 1960, the Shanghai American Film Studio held the "China Fine Arts Film Exhibition" in Beijing, and on the afternoon of the last day of the exhibition, Vice Premier Chen Yi came to visit and showed great interest in the content of the exhibition. He saw Qi Baishi's paintings on the exhibition board, and when he heard that the factory wanted to do ink painting experiments, he immediately said: "If you can make Qi Baishi's paintings move, it will be better!" ”
When the news spread back to Shanghai, Tewei immediately set up an ink animation experimental team, and personally served as the leader of the group, taking the factory as his home and leading the team to start one experiment after another.
In 1960, based on Qi Baishi's "Frog Sound Ten Miles Out of the Mountain Spring" and other flower and bird paintings, China's first ink animation film "Little Tadpole Finds Mother" (collective choreographer) was released with Te Wei as the art director and Qian Jiajun as the technical director.
Stills from "The Little Tadpole Finds Mom"
Qi Baishi's frogs, tadpoles, shrimps and crabs and other small animals are vividly active on the screen, producing the effect of thick ink and light ink and virtual reality, breaking the traditional method of "single-line flat painting" of animation films, announcing the birth of a new type of animation in China, shocking the international animation industry, and winning unanimous praise at home and abroad.
In 1964, Te Wei and his old friend Qian Jiajun directed the ink animation film "Mudi" based on Li Keyan's buffalo, which changed the childish innocence of "Little Tadpole Finds Mother", with a calm and leisurely mood, like the idyllic poems written by Tang Dynasty poets. This two-year, twenty-minute film is a true masterpiece of Tevi's animated films.
Stills from "The Flute"
After retiring, Tewei, who was reluctant to give up animation, served as a consultant for the Shanghai Fine Arts Film Studio, and his office was moved from the original spacious factory director's room to a bucket room on the fifth floor of the animation building. In the face of all kinds of gaps, Te Wei did not care, and even secretly rejoiced that he could have more time to do animation.
In 1988, Tewei and his team spent two years and launched the pinnacle of ink animation, "Landscape and Water", which won more than a dozen domestic and foreign awards.
Stills from "Landscape and Water"
It can be said that in the development process of Chinese animation for decades, it was Tewei who led the older generation of animators to create the "Chinese School". In recognition of his contribution to the animation industry, in 1995, the International Animation Association (ASIFA) awarded Tewe the Lifetime Achievement Award, and he became the first Chinese to receive this award.
In 1995, Tewell received the International Animation Association Lifetime Achievement Award
In the last days of his life, the ninety-year-old Te wei was hospitalized for accidentally falling, and when he woke up, he wanted to negotiate with his colleagues in the factory to shoot an ink animation short film; when he was confused, he would use the ward as a studio and ask everyone to hold a meeting to "study and study"... He was born for Chinese animation, and the cartoon images he created with his brush seemed to be his children, showing his innocent and optimistic inner world.