By Li Han

Staff Writer of the Tsinghua News Center

An inaugural ceremony to mark the opening of the Center for Zhang Ding Art Research, Tsinghua University was held at Tsinghua on January 25th. Vice Minister of Education Chen Xi, Vice Minister of Culture and Director of Chinese National Academy of Arts and Design Wang Wenzhang, Tsinghua University Council Chairman Hu Heping, and Ms. Li Zhao, wife of Mr. Zhang Ding, jointly inaugurated the Center.

Born in 1917, Mr. Zhang Ding is a famous artist and art educator in China. He is a former President of the Central Academy of Arts and Design, which joined Tsinghua University in 1999 and eventually became Tsinghua's current Academy of Arts and Design. Zhang is also an active member of numerous Chinese arts organizations. He has created a large number of art treasures and made significant contributions to both art education and the general flourishing of art in China.

(Mr. Zhang Ding)

Mr. Zhang Ding's wife Li Zhao becomes honorary Director of the Center, and Professor Yuan Yunfu from Tsinghua's Academy of Arts becomes its Director. Nearly a hundred experts in the arts from Tsinghua and elsewhere have been invited to become researchers at the Center. It will focus its research on Zhang Ding's ideas and practices in art, and this emphasis will also help promote research on Chinese art history. Experts from such institutions and organizations as the Chinese Artists Association, the Palace Museum, the National Art Museum of China, and the China Central Academy of Fine Arts also attended the ceremony.

(Photo by Guo Haijun)