Ma Wendou, director of the Yunnan Provincial Museum, said the center will promote professional research into Buddhist art of the Nanzhao and Dali kingdoms, and offer research services for Chinese and foreign scholars. The Woon Brothers Foundation in Singapore will provide financial support to the center for three consecutive years, with 600,000 yuan ($ 85,172) per year. Support will also come from the Yunnan Provincial Department of Culture and Tourism, which manages the museum and art gallery, as well as the Yunnan Provincial Museum. The collaborative research results will be presented in papers, monographs and exhibitions.
The several parties will also work together on contemporary art exchanges, international painting exhibitions, exchange programs for academics and the creation of a cultural industry.
According to Wee Teng Woon, director of the Woon Brothers Foundation and also a renowned art collector with particular expertise in Buddhist art and culture, the cooperation will help promote research on the history and culture of Nanzhao and Dali kingdoms, and will also strengthen the cultural and educational exchanges and cooperation between China and the UK.
First set up in 2007 by the four Woon brothers, the foundation aims to promote art education and collection, and to also help the needy. In 2014, the Woon Brothers Foundation gifted a rare 800-year-old reliquary from China’s ancient Dali Kingdom to the Yunnan Provincial Museum.
Steven Kyffin, pro vice-chancellor of the University of Northumbria in the UK, said he hoped that through a series of cooperative research projects, Western countries could better understand Eastern culture.
