Cover Professor Lin Xiang Xiong is forging peace through art and cultural dialogue
Professor Lin Xiang Xiong is forging peace through art and cultural dialogue
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Renowned artist, entrepreneur and guest professor of Peking University’s School Of Arts, Lin Xiang Xiong’s mission is forging peace through art and will soon open the Lin Xiang Xiong Art Gallery this December
Professor Lin Xiang Xiong’s life reads like a map of cultures: born in Shantou in 1945, he lost his mother at a young age and his father left their family amidst rising political tensions in China. Left to fend for himself and his two young sisters, Lin did farming and other odd jobs to survive.
“My life story isn’t simple,” Lin says. “I’ve been through hardship and I know how hard life is for everyday people. I’m lucky to be alive. As human beings, we have to fight for life. No matter how hard your circumstances, you have to fight for it. You alone have to fight for your future. It’s not something people can do for you.”
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Moving to Singapore in 1956, he discovered a gift for drawing in primary school. He later studied at the Singapore Academy of Arts and went to pursue the arts in Paris. There, East and West entered a lifelong dialogue that shaped a practice devoted to quiet moral force. Lin has since cast art as a bonding tool between peoples and a means to foster peace.
Above Lin’s work work maps human consequence and human care
Lin’s work work maps human consequence and human care
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His work maps human consequence and human care: scenes that register war, poverty and environmental distress sit beside intimate studies of ritual and labour.
Projects such as Unesco’s 2016 “Art for Peace” exhibition and a worldwide tour titled “Fusion The East And West” demonstrate how his canvases and programmes aim to cultivate empathy rather than spectacle. In June 2025, Lin was honoured with the Gold Medal and Certificate from the Ligue Universelle du Bien Public (one of France’s highest civic honours for global humanitarian service) for his contributions to humanity, the arts and society.
Even now in his 80’s, he is embracing a dual role as artist and organiser, noting the Global Chinese Arts & Culture Society and his leadership of global forums that tie cultural memory to contemporary responsibility.
Above Lin Xiang Xiong’s worldwide exhibition tour”Le Bois du Cazier, “Fusion The East And West” in Belgium, 2015
Lin Xiang Xiong’s worldwide exhibition tour”Le Bois du Cazier, “Fusion The East And West” in Belgium, 2015
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“Art is a key to the civilisation of human beings,” says Lin, who is guest professor of Peking University’s School Of Arts and also president of the Global Chinese Arts & Culture Society, which he founded to sustain his lifelong mission to foster greater understanding between cultures using art.
“As an artist, I want to make a difference. In the past, art was reserved mainly for the nobility and kings. But that changed after the 15th century starting in Italy, where art became an engine for artists to transform society, to change the whole world. Art is the oldest form of communication that bridges humans who don’t even speak the same verbal language,” he muses.
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“I give myself a good guiding principle,” Lin says on what drives him to make an impact beyond the world of fine art collection. “I am not the most powerful man in the world. But what I do have is a golden heart. I like to take care of people. My skill is arts, paintings, writing stories and books. That’s what I have. So I had to do something.”
“I have had the chance to stand up at Unesco’s ‘Art for Peace’ event and make a collective call for peace. As artists we may feel like we don’t have a say or voice, but it matters when we combine our voices. We are not alone. It matters when many artists come together asking for peace. That’s why I travel across Europe to conduct these intercultural dialogues. That’s why I do what I do today.”
Above Lin at the 2016 Unesco ‘Art For Peace - Cross Cultural Perspective Between East And West’ exhibition he curated
Lin at the 2016 Unesco ‘Art For Peace - Cross Cultural Perspective Between East And West’ exhibition he curated
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It’s a message that’s not simply touted, given Lin’s heartbreaking life story of being left on his own at such a young age and having to build a whole new life for himself in a foreign country.
Such is his philosophy of life and of art—that both should reflect how one turns hardship into something beautiful, something that breaks down barriers between people rather than build them.
“Who would believe that today, more than 100 years after World War II, we would still see war happening in the Middle East, between Russia and Ukraine and so on—all because of people fighting each other over natural resources,” Lin says.
Throughout his career, Lin has used his art—a fascinating combination of abstraction and traditional techniques—as contemporary social commentary, as seen in the 15 works of art he produced to reflect the current war in Gaza.
His breadth of work has touched on such themes as Southeast Asian heritage, anti-war, anti-pollution, anti-poverty, and the human condition. A Singaporean citizen by nationality, Lin has found a new home for his continued advocacy of art to promote peace and unity.
Penang, he says, ticked all the boxes for art, multiculturalism and bridge-building between East and West.
Thus, Penangites and indeed, Malaysians everywhere will soon have the pleasure of visiting the Lin Xiang Xiong Art Gallery on The Light Waterfront in Gelugor, Penang—an eight-storey, RM100-million institution built over the sea in the form of a turtle, a cultural emblem of longevity and prosperity.
Spanning 86,929 square feet, the gallery will present more than 300 original works with a rotating programme of over a thousand pieces; floors two to five chart Lin’s journey, the sixth hosts guest exhibitions and the seventh is reserved for international symposia.
Exhibitions for Lin are deliberate acts of reconciliation. He frames cultural exchange as civic work: dialogues convened in museums and forums, not merely displays, that connect Confucian ideas of responsibility with pressing global concerns. In September 2025 he was invited to join the Board of Leaders for Peace, a Paris-based foundation chaired by former French Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin. The Lin Xiang Xiong Art Gallery’s collaboration with Leaders for Peace is a testament to Lin’s admirable ability to initiate global dialogues for peace and harness art as a universal language of reconciliation.
“Penang island may have been the earliest to receive European culture, that’s why George Town today has been a centre of the arts and multiculturalism for almost 200 years. If the whole of Malaysia replicated Penang, there would be success,” Professor Lin prophesies.
Above Lin frames cultural exchange as civic work: dialogues convened in museums and forums, not merely displays.
Lin frames cultural exchange as civic work: dialogues convened in museums and forums, not merely displays.
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When the gallery opens in mid-December 2025, it will be more than a museum: it will assert art’s capacity to translate difference into sympathy and to anchor Penang more firmly on the map of global cultural exchange.
“I’m thankful to God to have made it this far. So this is my chance to help build Penang’s art scene and make it the standard for culture and art in this country.”
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Previously contributing to Esquire Malaysia, Expat Lifestyle and Newsweek, Tania oversees digital stories across Tatler’s key content pillars, also leading the Front & Female platform exploring issues and topics affecting women today.
