Winner of the 2024 Student Academy Award and DGA Student Film Award Grand Prize, Neither Donkey Nor Horse is a 28-minute historical biopic thriller set against the Great Manchurian Plague of 1910. The film dramatizes the true life story of the first Nobel Prize-nominated Chinese scientist, Dr. Wu Lien-teh, and his perilous quest leading the combat against the world’s most deadly epidemic at the time. As a young Chinese doctor educated in the U.K., he must defy prejudices of both the East and the West to champion his groundbreaking theory of the disease - and seek the truth that will heal it.

About the Project

Zhongyu (Robin) Wang is a Student Academy Award® winner, a DGA Student Award winner, and a two-time Student Emmy winner based in Los Angeles.

As a director and producer, Robin has brought his works to over a hundred international film festivals worldwide, including the prestigious Telluride Film Festival and many prominent Oscar-qualifiers such as LA Outfest, Cleveland, St. Louis, Urbanworld, deadCenter, and LA Shorts. He is especially known for directing the historical biopic short film, Neither Donkey Nor Horse, based on the life of the first Nobel Prize-nominated Chinese scientist, Dr. Wu Lien-teh. The film, sponsored by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, premiered at the 51st Telluride Film Festival, won the Student Academy Awards®, and is longlisted for Best Live Action Short Film at the 97th Academy Awards®.

Robin's other directorial works include the coming-of-age Asian American comedy Wei-Lai. The film won Best Comedy Series at the 42nd College Television Awards, the Best Comedy of the Year at Newfilmmakers Los Angeles, and has been an official selection at Bentonville Film Festival, Newport Beach Film Festival, Hollyshorts, as well as a Finalist for KCET - Fine Cut and CAA Moebius. The film has received distributions on Kanopy, Viddsee, and Omeleto, where it currently garnered 290K views.

From 2023 to 2024, Robin helmed numerous higher-budget genre films and period pieces as the director. Notably, he co-directed the feature film Jack & Lou: A Gangster Love Story, starring Linda Hamilton from the Terminator Franchise. The film is set in 1920s Al Capone's Chicago, with select scenes filmed on the Warner Brothers Studio Lot.

Robin was born in Xi'an, China but had spent most of his youth traversing the rich and intricate cultural landscapes of China, Singapore, and the United States. As a Chinese diaspora storyteller, Robin is recognized for his global Asian-themed dramas with a blend of bittersweet poignancy, twisted ethics, and heartfelt realities. As one who wanders on the margin of cultures, he wants to continue to explore the meaning of "home" and "homelessness" against the massive backdrop of cultural displacement and the Asian diaspora.


About the Team

Amidst the outbreak of the 1910 Manchurian Plague, a young Chinese doctor must defy prejudices of both the East and the West to champion his groundbreaking theory of the disease and seek the truth that will heal it.

Neither Donkey Nor Horse

Short Film

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Neither Donkey Nor Horse

Short Film

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Details

Credits

Producer

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