Artist brings world together

At 68, Lin Xiangxiong, also spelled Lim Siang Hiong, a Chinese-born Singaporean, has already accomplished enough to be proud of.

He has staged numerous personal exhibitions in Singapore, Thailand, Hong Kong, Taiwan and the Chinese mainland.

He has published dozens of painting albums, collections of essays and art reviews, and participated in and witnessed with great satisfaction the brisk development of Chinese art since 1983.

He is among the few to become an overseas adviser for the Chinese Academy of Arts, China's top institution for artistic research in 2004.

He served as the chief designer of the Olympic Village, a residential complex for athletes attending the 2008 Olympics in Beijing.

He heralded the 2005 Zhengzhou International Urban Sculpture Festival in central Henan province, working as the chief coordinator and curator.

As a result, he has become the subject of at least five biographies published in Singapore and China.

But he refuses to stop and rest on his laurels.

"I am a natural-born adventurer who always seeks to challenge the status quo, to create and innovate," said Lin, a versatile artist, scholar, poet and advocate of Asian cultures, who also runs the nation's largest gold mining company.

Most recently, the world tour of Lin's largest-ever solo exhibition kicked off at the National Art Museum of China in Beijing.

Throughout his career, Lin has used art and culture as a powerful vehicle to bridge the East and the West.

Lin said he feels his cultural roots are in China, which is why he makes unremitting efforts to promote Chinese arts and culture worldwide in his lifetime.

"Chinese culture, especially ancient wisdom, is what I have lived by and benefited from as an accomplished artist and successful entrepreneur," Lin said.

"I firmly believe that the Chinese civilization can make a greater contribution to mankind in the new century."