The Adventures of Sanmao the Waif (also known as The Winter of Three Hairs, Wanderings of Three-Hairs the Orphan or An Orphan on the Streets) () is a 1949 Chinese film produced by Kunlun Film Company, directed by Zhao MingHandbook of Chinese Popular Culture p.205 ed. Dingbo Wu, Patrick D. Murphy and Yan Gong, and written by Yang Hansheng, Chen Baichen, and Li Tianji.Xu, Lanjun. Save the Children: Problem Childhoods and Narrative Politics in Twentieth-Century Chinese Literature. (pp. 154-165) Princeton University, United States -- New Jersey, 2007. ProQuest, https://www.proquest.com/dissertations-theses/save-children-problem-childhoods-narrative/docview/304836489/se-2 The 1949 film is based on the Sanmao comic, created by Zhang Leping in 1935, which features the well-known Chinese cultural symbol of child poverty, Sanmao (meaning "three hairs"), a homeless orphan boy. The film, which stars Wang Longji, follows Sanmao through his adventures surviving and meeting new people on the streets of Shanghai. The film notably works to counterbalance the tragic story of Sanmao with humor and comedy. Sanmao's visual image of a small boy with a big head and three hairs is well known amongst Chinese people both old and young.
Plot The film begins in Old Shanghai with a homeless orphan named Sanmao (Three Hairs). Constantly battling hunger and coldness, he sleeps in garbage carts and eats anything he can find. He tries to mimic the actions of other homeless children, earning money by selling newspapers and picking up cigarette butts. However, without any parents or a family, he has no one to teach him how to survive or succeed.
Sanmao comes across a group of street urchins who - after an initial fight - take him in and look out for him, while working together. The little earnings that he manages to make still have to be given to their “Little Boss.” Though Sanmao finds camaraderie and friendship with the group of homeless children, he still envies the children who can attend school and who have parents who will buy anything for them. However he stays optimistic and resilient, and works hard.
On Children's Day, Sanmao is intrigued by celebratory parades in the street. He hears announcers shouting that children are the future of the nation and claiming that all children should have rights to good health, education, warmth, comfort and should be loved, protected, and respected. But ironically Sanmao and his homeless friends are beaten and chased away from the celebration by policemen when they attempt to join the Boy Scouts marching in the parade.
One day Sanmao is blamed for stealing a wallet that he found and was trying to return, but he is saved by the “Big Boss.” Big Boss convinces Sanmao to work for him with Big Boss's other “apprentices” as a pickpocket. Sanmao feels guilty after stealing his first wallet and returns it to the owner, but he is thrown into a cell by the gang and left there for three days without food. Afterwards, the Big Boss and his wife dress Sanmao as if he were their son and take him to a department store to shoplift material. Upon being caught, they run away, leaving Sanmao behind. Sanmao escapes the pursuing shopkeepers and returns to the streets. Unable to continue living on the street, Sanmao tries to sell himself (at a far lower price than a doll pictured in a toy-shop window) and is bought by a selfish rich woman who wants to adopt a son. Sanmao is renamed "Tom" and he is given etiquette classes to prepare him for the upcoming celebration of his adoption (which takes place in November 1948). But Sanmao does not want to become a prim, proper, and obedient “son”. On the night of the celebration, Sanmao goes outside to have a moment alone, and he sees his homeless friends outside the gates. They are hungry and he lets them in to give them food. The homeless children overrun the party, which comes to a chaotic end, and Sanmao flees the lavish home along with the other boys.
Sanmao returns to his harsh life, but is at least free on the streets. His days continue as before, until the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) victory in the Chinese Civil War in October 1949. Sanmao and his homeless friends encounter the parade in the streets of Shanghai, with hordes of locals celebrating the liberation. The people march in the streets, carry banners of the CCP leaders’ faces, and shout, “Long live Chairman Mao!” Countless homeless orphans like Sanmao join the march on the street and dance and celebrate.
Cast Sanmao (Three Hairs): Wang Longji Yan, Gong and Ming Zhao, directors. Wanderings of Three Hairs the Orphan. Wanderings of Three Hairs the Orphan 三毛流浪記 (1949) with English Subtitles, Modern Chinese Cultural Studies, 23 Mar. 2020, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aZDgfAY3b8A. Little Boss: Ding Ran Big Boss: Guan Hongda Rich Wife: Lin Zhen Rich Husband: Du Lei Little Ox: Wang Gongxu Auntie: Huang Chen Lao San: Yang Shaoqiao
Inspiration The film is based on the 1947 cartoon series of the same title. The film shares some scenes with and extends Sanmao's adventures after the end of Zhang Leping's comic-strip. Zhang Leping was one of the most-well-known cartoonists of modern China, as well as vice president and active member of the Cartoon Propaganda Corps (a group of popular Chinese cartoonists who used their art to rally citizens during the outbreak of war with Japan) Zhang began publicizing his comic series in the Shanghai daily newspaper, Shen Bao, in 1935 where it immediately garnered attention from the public. Zhang's serial comic ran in the paper during and after World War II for a total of 12 years. The left-leaning cartoonist often used his drawings to portray inequality in China between the lower classes and the elites and brought attention to child poverty with his illustrations. Zhang's approach to his cartoon belonged to a specific Chinese form of visual expression, called Manhua, which was shaped by “an intellectual and ideological turn towards nationalism, aesthetic syncretism, and specific internationalism”.Bobrowska, Olga (2022). Chinese Animated Film and Ideology, 1940s-1970s: Unity in Resistance: Wanderings of Sanmao by Zhang Chaoqun. (pp. 87) CRC Press. https://www.taylorfrancis.com/reader/read-online/a85eae83-8c72-4044-ae22-8755788795b1/chapter/pdf?context=ubx Director Zhao Ming also sourced Charlie Chaplin's films as inspiration for The Adventures of Sanmao the Waif, with the goal being to make the movie enjoyable for educated and uneducated people.Zhao, Ming. “Memories and Random Thoughts of the Film Winter of Three Hairs 《三毛流浪记》的回顾与随想.” P. 54. Dianying yishu (电影艺术) (1984) 12.
Themes Like the original comic, the film aimed to satirize and call out the apathetic actions and attitude towards child poverty that was held by many people during the 1930s and 1940s, as well as criticize the injustice and cruelty towards the poor in the old society. It extols the “Sanmao Spirit” of being strong, kind, optimistic, warm, and humorous even under challenging circumstances.GUO PENGQUN, GAO ZHIMING (2008).试论20世纪儿童电影的三大经典及其影响 (The Three Classic Children Films in the 20th Century and Their Influences). DOI:10.16583/j.cnki.52-1014/j Though the homeless character was not a new theme at this time, Zhang created a child character who retains his innocence and sense of moral justice despite his unfortunate circumstances. Sanmao's innocent optimism and sense of justice are large themes in The Adventures of Sanmao the Waif, seen in Sanmao's desire to go to school or when he returns the wallet after pickpocketing it.
The Adventures of Sanmao the Waif shows the lives of orphans, the “wandering children”,"Shanghai's Wandering Ones: Child Welfare in a Global City, 1900–1953." p.20 who struggle to survive on the streets in 1940s Shanghai. The “San Mao” character was a unique product of the Shanghai local culture of the time. The film depicts scenes representative of Shanghai urban modernity: the Shanghai dialects, the parades on the street, the police, the multitudes of homeless children scattered amongst the street corners. It highlights the inequality among children in the 1940s when Sanmao and his orphans friends were not allowed to celebrate Children's day with the richer children, despite the slogan "Children are the protagonists of the state's future! We must cherish the children and respect them!" In this scene, Sanmao wants to join the Boy Scout parade and prompts his homeless friends to join them, but unfortunately, they are chased away by the police. This scene alludes to the irony of China's supposed policies of protecting and supporting all children, as homeless children of lower classes are shunned from public celebrations and discriminated against by police officers. The Children's Day parade scene contains comedic elements as well as an important opportunity for Sanmao's character development. Zhao Ming affirmed this scene as crucial to the plot of the film. Ultimately, the film and this scene critique the Kuomintang government's inability to adequately support poorer children as well as bring attention to the tendency for impoverished children to be treated much more negatively than children of wealthier backgrounds.
The film uses comedy to criticize the injustice of the old society. The film's power comes largely from over exaggeration. For example, the famous sequence where the rich lady holds a party for Sanmao but Sanmao causes a farce with a group of homeless kids, is shadowing resistance against social norms in the old society. Unlike other films such as Myriad of Lights, which uses strict realism and tragedy to reveal the miserable destiny of the lower class, The Adventures of Sanmao the Waif adopts the form of romantic exaggerated comedy to express this theme. (https://books.google.com/books?id=xl_SDwAAQBAJ) QIZHI (2019). People's Film (1949-1966): Institutions and Ideas in Chinese Film (1). Texas: Remembering Publishing. p.47-52
The last parade scene where a dancer invites Sanmao and other vagrant children to leave the sidelines and join in the celebration, contrasts with the earlier Children's Day parade scene where Sanmao and his friends are chased away and beaten by the police after attempting to join the marching Boy Scouts. This contrast implies that the Old Society rejects this group of homeless youths, while New China embraces them. This ending scene of the film diverges from Zhang Leping's original serial comic in that it introduces overt support for the CCP, turning the character of Sanmao into a symbol of political liberation and social justice.
Background Zhang Leping The creator of the original 1935 Sanmao comic, Zhang Leping, originated from a humble background, only attending a few years of elementary school. He gained experience as an apprentice in Shanghai later in his life and took courses at a professional school. Sources of Zhang's thought process when writing and creating the Sanmao series could be found in the prefaces of his comic strips. These introductions gave valuable insight into the political thought of Zhang as well as the goals he wished to achieve with the Sanmao comics. Unlike cartoonists such as Feng Zikai, Zhang did not keep diaries or essays about his artistic work, making the introductions of his comic strips vital to the understanding of his work.
Zhang Leping also displayed his artistic ideas through his contribution to published debates about comic art in specialized magazines. His son, Zhang Weijun, along with other of Leping's family members collected pictures, documents and the original Sanmao picture story books, which they made available to the public on the official Sanmao website. In recognition of his works, the Zhang Leping Memorial Hall was built in 1995 in the artist's hometown of Haiyan 海鹽, in which guests are able to visit the original physical pieces and art.