By Huang Jiahui

2016surname Nian12moon30On [date], Mr. Huang Qiyao passed away in the United States at the age of106Age.

You may not have heard his name, but you’ve definitely seen his work—he is the “Father of Bambi,” the man behind the Disney classic *Bambi*.

1942That year, he designed the backgrounds for the Disney classic animated film “Bambi,”1991In [year], he was awarded the “Disney Legend Award”(Disney
Legends AwardThe2001In [year], he was named one of Disney's Legends,2006Awarded for an animated film inWinsor McCayAchievement Award,2013The final retrospective exhibition was held at the Walt Disney House and Museum in2015The documentary “Tyrus” was published. He lived a life of contentment with whatever came his way, yet it was extraordinarily rich.

1920In [year], to escape the turmoil of war and famine,9At the age of [age], Huang Qiyao left his mother and younger sister behind and followed his father on a long journey across the ocean from their hometown of Taishan, Guangdong, China. After drifting at sea for over a month, they landed on Angel Island in San Francisco Bay. Known as “Angel Island,” this place—which was named after an angel but was in reality a “gateway to hell”—remained a terrifying experience that Mr. Huang could never forget for the rest of his life.

Due to the impact of the “Chinese Exclusion Act,”20At the turn of the century, the United States refused to accept immigrants from China,9At the age of [age], Huang Qiyao was initially forced to remain on the island alone, unable to contact his father. During that month-long stay, the young boy had no one to turn to; he was accompanied only by fear and helplessness. Among the other immigrants, some could not bear it and jumped to their deaths, Fortunately, the immigration authorities eventually had no choice but to release the young boy, and father and son were finally reunited.

His father took him to settle in the Central Valley of California, but because the family was poor, his father was forced to leave him behind to find work in Los Angeles,9At the age of [age], he stayed in Gaza alone to attend school.

While attending school in Gazamendo, he had little interest in subjects other than art class. Compounded by the lack of his father’s guidance, he began skipping classes. When his father found out, fearing he might go astray, he brought him to live with him. Huang Qiyao had shown a passion for painting from a young age, and his father was very supportive and encouraging. However, life was hard at the time, and there was not a penny to spare for paper or ink. After much thought, his father came up with a solution: he would dip a brush in water and practice calligraphy on old newspapers, letting the ink dry before drawing on them. This laid a solid foundation for him to later incorporate ink-wash painting techniques into Western-style painting.

Huang Qiyao said that he has been very fortunate throughout his life, and that his first stroke of luck came when he met a teacher who changed his life. During his middle school years, he encountered a wonderful teacher who, upon discovering his unique talent for painting, helped him secure a scholarship for a summer program at an art college and encouraged him to pursue a career as a professional painter.

20In the United States at the turn of the century, Chinese Americans held a very low social status and had very few career options; aside from working as domestic servants, laundry workers, or waitstaff—or similar menial jobs—becoming a painter…Huang Qiyao and his father both found it hard to believe.

After completing the summer program his teacher had enrolled him in, Huang Qiyao was left wanting more. After some deliberation, he decided to continue his studies at the art school. He was the youngest student there, but also the most talented. His studies...5Throughout the year, classmates constantly mocked and discriminated against him, either openly or subtly, saying things like, “A ‘Chinese guy” isn’t fit to study art!” But in the end, he persevered.

On the other hand, to cover his son’s exorbitant art school tuition, the father had no choice but to work twice as hard to earn money, even going so far as to borrow from various sources. To ease his father’s burden, the young boy not only worked tirelessly to secure a full scholarship to Otis College of Art and Design, but also took on a part-time job as a domestic helper at two local households after school every day, cleaning, doing laundry, and polishing furniture, which allowed him to earn50A pittance.

1930In [year], Huang Qiyao graduated from the Otis College of Art and Design with honors. Life after graduation was not smooth sailing; at first, his path as a professional painter remained rocky. Because of his Asian heritage, many companies refused to even look at his work. Fortunately, after overcoming these setbacks and through his own relentless efforts,3After the New Year, Huang Qiyao finally landed a job at Disney as an entry-level animator.

In an era when most Chinese people could only find work as unskilled laborers, Huang Qiyao was clearly an exception; while those around him envied him, he himself felt deeply frustrated.

      In his mind, animation was a highly creative profession, but when he actually got involved in it, he felt utterly hopeless. At the time, he held the lowest-level position at Disney as an entry-level animator. His daily task was to trace Mickey Mouse’s movements. As a skilled worker on the animation assembly line, day after day, he had become numb to the mechanical motions. Just as he felt his artistic soul was slowly being eroded and his dreams were slipping further and further away,…..

Just when hope seems lost, life is often quietly brewing a turning point.

At the time, Disney’s animated film *Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs* had been a huge success and made a fortune, so the company decided to produce another children’s animated film along similar lines. After much deliberation, they chose to adapt the story of a fawn that lost its mother’s protection in the forest— *Bambi*.

They hoped to replicate the success of “Snow White” with “Bambi,” but they later realized that trying to replicate it was a dead end.

“Snow White” employs a Baroque artistic style, in which every petal of every flower and every leaf on every tree is rendered with exquisite detail and lifelike realism. However, the animated film "Bambi" is a forest-themed adventure story, Bambi and his friends are always roaming the forest, surrounded by leaves and bushes. If the detailed Baroque style were used here, the screen would be filled with countless lines, creating not only a cluttered mess but also obscuring the main characters behind the forest’s vibrant foliage, making it impossible to distinguish between the main and secondary elements.

Disney had been struggling with the background for quite some time. Just as the creative team was at a loss and the project was about to be shelved indefinitely, they received a few concept sketches that instantly sparked an idea. The forest in the sketches was rendered in a hazy, indistinct manner; with just a few strokes, the artists evoked the desired atmosphere—simple yet ethereal. Blurred colors and lines were used to represent distant mountains and grasslands; vague green blocks accented with a few green streaks depicted lush grass; and hazy, dreamlike hues conveyed the presence of mountains and trees in the distance. These sketches, blending elements of traditional Chinese landscape painting with oil painting techniques, created a soft, poetic, and atmospheric natural scene. Through the use of different colors and shapes, they captured the breeze in the forest, the speed of the running deer, and the surrounding ambiance.

These stunning sketches were created by Huang Qiyao, who saw hope and opportunity in Bambi’s predicament. “Isn’t this just a matter of the background?””I'm a landscape painter!" he said. And that's how those sketches came to be. Of course, his inspiration actually came from the landscape paintings of the Song Dynasty. Besides, his fate was much like Bambi's: he lost his mother's protection at an early age, and he and his mother had been10A parting at this age is a farewell forever. He seems to have woven his longing for his mother into his designs.

When Walt Disney, the company’s founder, saw his drawings, he was completely blown away. He said, “I love this sense of ambiguity, this mystique of the forest.”…”Although the painting doesn't depict the entire forest, it conveys a sense of it, letting you know that the forest is right here." (I love this indefinable quality, the mysterious quality of the
forest…it didn’t necessarily look like a forest—but rather, it felt like the
forest.It was through these paintings that Huang Qiyao was promoted from a junior animator to the lead artist for the entire project.

In *Bambi*, he was in charge of all the characters, designs, colors, and backgrounds; the entire film is imbued with his personal style.…His colleagues said, ‘He really is a legend.”…Among all the companies in Hollywood, very few can get someone to completely change their previous film style, but he did it.

1942After its release in [year], the animated film *Bambi* became an instant hit, establishing itself as another Disney classic.

The film’s aesthetic style evokes a distinctly Chinese sense of melancholy; its hazy, dreamlike, and mysterious visuals capture the softness and free-spirited nature of traditional Chinese ink painting, captivating countless viewers.

Unfortunately, Huang Qiyao, the “Father of Bambi,” had left the dream-making world of Disney a full year before the film’s release. We have no way of verifying the exact reason for his departure at the time, but certain clues suggest that unfair treatment at Disney ultimately led to his disillusionment and departure. In the original credits for *Bambi*, he was not listed among the principal creative staff despite serving as the lead designer; instead, he was merely mentioned at the end of the credits as a background animator.

2001In [year], Disney made amends for the injustice done to him; that year, he was inducted into the Disney Hall of Fame and presented with the “Legend Award.” It took half a century for Huang Qiyao’s contributions to *Bambi* to finally be recognized.

2009surname Nian4On the day Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month kicked off, Huang Qiyao, a distinguished Asian American community leader, took his place on the podium to receive the “Los Angeles Hope Award” from the mayor of Los Angeles in recognition of his achievements in the arts.

In addition to animation design, he is also a landscape painter, muralist, ceramic designer, greeting card designer, and kite designer.

1941That year, he left Disney to join Warner Bros. Animation as a concept artist, where he worked on numerous projects (including *Rebel Without a Cause*, *Sunset in the Desert*, *The Green Berets*, and others).1968After retiring from Warner Bros. that year, he turned his creative energy to kite-making, crafting exquisite bamboo-frame kites that have also garnered widespread acclaim abroad.

From a Chinese child who struggled to make ends meet by working two jobs, to a Chinese artist who successfully established his own unique style in the United States through his talent and wisdom, Mr. Huang can be described as a model of how Chinese people have survived and thrived in America. He is also the finest embodiment of the Chinese community’s pursuit of the “American Dream,” having lived a life that was both heartbreaking and glorious.