Senior Chinese animator Te Wei has died of respiratory failure in a Shanghai hospital at the age of 95, at 1:45pm on Feb 4th, 2010.
Previously named Sheng Song, Te Wei was born in Shanghai on August 22, 1915. As the founder of Chinese animation, he devoted his entire life to its development and was the only artist in the country to receive a lifetime achievement award from the International Animated Film Association. Te Wei’s famous works include “The Conceited General” in 1956, “Where Is Mama?” in 1960, “The Cowboy’s Flute” in 1963, and “Feeling from Mountain and Water” in 1988–all classics that have influenced many generations of Chinese.
Where is Mama, 1960
From about 1960,Te Wei’s animation style was influenced by Chinese painter Qi Baishi. He first applied Chinese brush painting to “Where is Mama?” or “The Little Tadpole Looking for His Mother” in 1960, which stunned the animation world when it was produced. Not permitted to carry on his animation during the Cultural Revolution, Te Wei regained a position of artistic influence in the late 1970s and the 1980s with a series of animated films in painterly style.
As the first president of the Shanghai Animation Film Studio, Te insisted on innovation and introduced new techniques such as incorporating traditional paper-cutting and paper-folding in animated films. While he was in charge of the work, the Shanghai Animation Film Studio produced many other animated films such as “Uproar in Heaven” and “NeZha Riots the Seas”.
Filmography The Conceited General, 1956 Where is Mama, 1960 The Cowboy’s Flute, 1963 Feeling from Mountain and Water, 1988
Anni Liang mailto: chinaanni@126.com 2010-02-05
