Qian Huafo (1884-1964)

    Although his place in the history of Chinese motion pictures is a relatively minor one, an actor who specialized in comic roles for the silent comedy shorts made by the Asia Film and Theater Company before World War I, Qian Huafo's standing in the wider world of art was considerably higher.  In fact, he examplified what the Western world would call a "Renaissance man".
    Qian Huafo 钱化佛 was born Qian Suhan 钱苏汉 in Wujin (now Changzhou), Jiangsu in 1884.  In his early years he studied in Japan, where he joined the Tongmenghui, the secret society and underground resistance movement organized by Sun Yat-sen and Song Jiaoren in Tokyo, Japan, on 20 August 1905.  Qian returned to Shanghai in 1910, and was an active participant in the Wuhan uprising of 1911 which led to the overthrow of the Qing (Manchu) dynasty and the establishment of the Republic of China.  Qian's service in the revolution led to an interview with Sun, who personally invited the young man to join the newly-formed government.  Qian gratefully but firmly declined this and subsequent offers of official posts, as his heart was in the arts, and that's where he wanted to return.  Back in Shanghai, he co-founded the New Drama Society, a theatrical company which performed modern plays, and in 1913 he was a co-founder of the Asia Film and Theater Company, the first entirely Chinese-invested and Chinese-staffed movie studio in China.  Until World War I put the company out of business by cutting off the supply of film from Europe, Qian participated in nearly all of Asia Film's productions, as a writer and/or actor.
    But his fame and reputation came from another art form:  painting.  He specialized in paintings of the Buddha or Buddha-like arhats, in various outdoor settings.  It was about this time that he adopted Huafo 化佛 ("becoming a buddha") as his given name and not long after renamed his art studio "10,000 Buddha Building".  This latter title accurately forecast the enormous popularity of these paintings, for by his own estimates Qian turned out more than 10,000 of them during his career.
    Qian also had a passion, almost an addiction to collecting.  Starting with samples of the calligraphy of the founding fathers of the Republic he had served with during the revolution, he soon expanded his collecting interests to other areas:  decorative fans, snuff bottles, ancient coins, antique public announcements and placards – over 10 categories of artifacts in all.  His collections were so well-chosen and attractively displayed that others with the collecting interest dubbed him the "Grand Master of Collecting".
     Qian Huafo died in Shanghai in 1964.  Some of his paintings and artifacts from his collections can be viewed at this Chinese site.  Clicking on an image will bring up its enlargement.  Page through the many illustrations by clicking on the numbers at the bottom of each page.