Sanmao (comic book character)

Sanmao 三毛
Sanmao
Author(s)	Zhang Leping
Launch date	1935
Genre(s)	manhua, pantomime comic, gag-a-day

Sanmao (Chinese: 三毛; pinyin: Sānmáo) is a manhua character created by Zhang Leping in 1935. He is one of the world's longest running cartoon characters and remains a landmark as one of the most famous and beloved fictional characters in China today.

The name Sanmao means "three hairs" in Chinese. While the character has undergone a number of transitions over time, he has always been drawn with the trademark three strands of hair, which implies malnutrition as a result of poverty.

Most Chinese comic books prior to Sanmao featured adults and the Sanmao stories were also unusual in that they lacked dialogue and could therefore be classified as pantomime comics. When Zhang Leping created the manhua comic series, his main goal was to dramatize the confusion brought about to society by the Second Sino-Japanese War. He wanted to express his concern for the young victims of the war, particularly the orphans living on the streets. Most of the changes in the characters would come after World War II during the liberation in 1949.

Sanmao's image has also been evolving throughout time, and in some modern continuation of the comics, he is depicted as a healthy, normal student. The character has also been portrayed as living through some of the most important periods in Chinese history and to futuristic space explorations.

The comic takes place mainly during the 1930s and early 1940s and is set in Old Shanghai in its "golden" era. Sanmao lived mostly in misery and stark poverty against a backdrop of war, colonization, and inflation.

The character made his first appearance in manhua and was later adapted into different formats.

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