China Animation Museum
Cloud-shaped national museum tracing a century of animation through twenty thousand original drawings, models and film reels.
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About this audio guide
This guide to the China Animation Museum follows Wan Laiming, a Shanghai animator working under Japanese occupation in 1941 who refused to accept that Disney's Snow White had closed the door on Chinese animation. It traces how he and his brother Wan Guchan, sons of a silk trader and a seamstress, poured scarce ink and film stock into Princess Iron Fan, built from a story every audience already knew, the Monkey King's fight with the princess of the iron fan cave. You'll hear how the film's message about refusing to give up slipped past wartime censors as simple fable. Stand inside the museum's cloud-shaped hall, near the restored print that returned to its screens in 2024.
This audio guide was created using AI.
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