Art patron and benefactor Yan Du is trying to cultivate the next generation of art professionals and fill the sizeable gaps in the west’s knowledge of Asian art. In 2019 she founded the Asymmetry Art Foundation, a non-profit organisation that supports the education of and exchange among curators while seeking to promote understanding of Asian art; in 2022 it established a permanent physical home in London. It has partnered with numerous British art galleries and academic institutions, including a research programme it established in 2022 with the Courtauld Institute of Art focusing on Chinese contemporary art, as well as funding a PhD student at Goldsmiths, University of London. She started collecting art in about 2010, and has since built a collection of more than 300 pieces, featuring an eclectic line-up of contemporary work from all over the world. With a particular focus on China and on female artists, it includes works by the likes of Eva Hesse, Yayoi Kusama, Georgia O’Keeffe, Lee Krasner, Louise Bourgeois, Leonora Carrington, Lee Bul, Yu Hong, Sarah Lucas, Danh Vo and Cao Fei. Originally from near Beijing, she fell in love with the art world during her education in the British capital, and has long split her time between London and Hong Kong.