Kan Chun (, ; 4 April 1946 – 20 August 2009) was a Burmese

satirist This is an incomplete list of writers, cartoonists and others known for involvement in satire – humorous social criticism. They are grouped by era and listed by year of birth. Included is a list of modern satires. Early satirical authors *Aes ...

journalist A journalist is a person who gathers information in the form of text, audio or pictures, processes it into a newsworthy form and disseminates it to the public. This is called journalism. Roles Journalists can work in broadcast, print, advertis ...

novelist A novelist is an author or writer of novels, though often novelists also write in other genres of both fiction and non-fiction. Some novelists are professional novelists, thus make a living wage, living writing novels and other fiction, while other ...

cartoonist A cartoonist is a visual artist who specializes in both drawing and writing cartoons (individual images) or comics (sequential images). Cartoonists differ from comics writers or comics illustrators/artists in that they produce both the litera ...

and

painter Painting is a Visual arts, visual art, which is characterized by the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a solid surface (called "matrix" or "Support (art), support"). The medium is commonly applied to the base with ...

from

Mandalay Mandalay is the second-largest city in Myanmar, after Yangon. It is located on the east bank of the Irrawaddy River, 631 km (392 mi) north of Yangon. In 2014, the city had a population of 1,225,553. Mandalay was founded in 1857 by Ki ...

Burma Myanmar, officially the Republic of the Union of Myanmar; and also referred to as Burma (the official English name until 1989), is a country in northwest Southeast Asia. It is the largest country by area in Mainland Southeast Asia and ha ...

(Myanmar). He was a prolific cartoonist and writer; he published 73 books. He died in August 2009 of cancer.

Early life

Kan Chun was born in

on 4 April 1946 to Aye Shwin and Ba Htay, a Burmese Muslim family. He had two brothers, Bo Maung and Hla Win. He attended the Mandalay 3 High School. After high school, he went on to study arts at the School of Fine Arts, Mandalay where he learned painting and cartooning from Win Maung, Kan Nyunt, Chit Mye,

Aye Kyaw Major-General Aye Kyaw was Minister of Information in Burma between June 1995 and September 1997. On 17 June 1995 Major-General Aye Kyaw replaced Brigadier-General Myo Thant as Minister of Information. The poet laureate Soe Nyunt was Deputy Minis ...

Ba Thet Ba Thet (1903–1972; ) was a Burmese painter who worked in Mandalay, Myanmar and who was known as an advocate of experimentation in the arts. He was an associate of Kin Maung, who is known commonly known in Burma as Kin Maung (Bank) to differ ...

and

Aung Khin Aung Khin ( , 13 February 1921 – 14 May 1996) was a Burmese painter who became prominent in the Mandalay art world. He is well known as one of the foremost and earliest of modernistic painters in Burma. Training, memberships, and associatio ...

Career

Kan Chun began his artistic career after college. His first published cartoon was in ''the Hanthawaddy'', a daily paper in October 1969. He quickly became a successful cartoonist, with his works regularly appearing in all the major dailies of the day—''

The Botataung The Botataung ( ) was a national Burmese language daily newspaper based out of Yangon in Myanmar. The paper, founded in 1958 by Thein Pe Myint, was arguably the leading leftist newspaper prior to its nationalization in 1964 by General Ne Win's go ...

'', ''

Kyemon ''Kyemon'' () (''The Mirror'') is a state-owned Burmese language daily newspaper based in Yangon, Myanmar. Along with ''Myanmar Alin'', Kyemon is one of two Burmese language national newspapers in the country. ''Kyemon'' tends to carry more human ...

'', and ''The Working People's Daily'', as well as in magazines and journals like ''Shudaung'', ''Thadin'', ''Moe Wai'', ''Cherry'', ''Mahaythi'', ''Kalya'', ''Life Style'', ''Idea'', etc. He also directed the commemorative documentary for the 100th anniversary of

Liberty Ma Mya Yin Liberty Mya Yin (; 21 April 1904 – 29 April 1945) was a Burmese anyeint dancer and singer, best known during the pre-World War II period. She gained the moniker "Liberty" from college fans who advocated Burmese independence. Life Mya Yin was ...

, a pre-war Mandalay-based

Anyeint Anyeint (; ; ; also spelt a-nyeint) is a traditional Burmese entertainment form that combines dance with instrumental music, song, and comedy routines, in theatrical performances.Seekins, Donald M. (2006) "Anyeint (Anyeint Pwe)" ''Historical dic ...

dancer.

Books written

* ''Modern Student'', 1988 * ''Golden Jubilee of Love and Other Short Stories'', 1990 * ''One Step of Thought'' * ''Humour Salad'' * ''Humour in the Clinic'' * ''Market Economy Concepts'' * ''Humorous Love''

References

External links

Kan Chun - Mandalay ka lu tawe a kyoung
{{authority control Burmese writers Burmese cartoonists Burmese Muslims People from Mandalay 1946 births 2009 deaths 20th-century Burmese painters