Guo Chunning and her husband, Yan Baishen, work together on experimental independent animated films that combine autobiography, fictional narrative, and documentary. Guo was born in Harbin, in China’s far north-east, in 1978, and Yan in Lanzhou, the capital of Gansu Province, in 1977. Guo Chunning is currently Associate Professor in New Media Art and Animation at the School of Fine Arts at Renmin University of China, from where she was awarded a PhD in Aesthetics in 2015. Previously, she received a BA from the Beijing Institute of Graphic Communication, where she first met fellow student Yan Baishen, and an MA in Digital Media from Beijing’s Central Academy of Fine Arts. Guo’s work has been exhibited and collected internationally by galleries and festivals. She collaborated with Yan on the first film in a five-part series about his childhood memories: Ketchup won the Jury Award at the 11th Annual Chinese Independent Film Festival in Nanjing in 2014, the Outstanding Short Film Award at A Long Week of Short Films Festival at the 2015 Shanghai International, and the 2015 Network for the Promotion of Asian Cinema (NETPAC) Award at the Busan International Short Film Festival, Busan, South Korea. After Yan Baishen graduated from the Insititute of Graphic Communication, he too completed a master’s degree in Experimental Film Studies at the Central Academy of Fine Arts, graduating in 2009. Yan Baishen and Guo Chunning live and work in Beijing.

The White Rabbit Collection is one of the world’s most extensive and significant collections of contemporary art from China. With a focus on works created since the year 2000, the Collection contains almost 3,000 works by over 750 artists and continues to expand. Note that when you click on the link below you will be forwarded to the White Rabbit Collection website.

Explore the work of Yan Baishen in the collection database