The Chinese art collection of the Lee Kong Chian Art Museum, National University of Singapore, is presented in this catalogue published to commemorate the Museum's official opening in August 1990. There are some 540 plates (350 in colour) giving prominent display to the collection, which has been organised into four main areas of Chinese art - Ceramics, Bronze, Archaic Jade, and Painting and Calligraphy. The ceramics section is the most extensive, covering some 6,000 years of Chinese history and representing a fairly complete cross-section of the various types of ceramic ware found through the millennia. Around 80 per cent of these pieces were acquired in the last six years, in the light of recent archaeological discoveries. Many of these are comparable to those found in famous collections the world over. There is also a brief introductory essay on each of the four sections.

Chapters on Asia features selected papers written by scholars who have been awarded the National Library’s Lee Kong Chian Research Fellowship. These works examine the history and heritage of Singapore and the region, and contain fresh research based on materials and resources from the collections of the National Library and National Archives of Singapore.

Lee Kong Chian (1893-1967) is one of Singapore's most outstanding figures in the history of Singapore and Southeast Asia. This book is the first complete account of this great person, following him from childhood to his passing. He leaves behind a great legacy which will continue to impact the lives of countless numbers of people in Singapore and beyond. He came from a poor family, but he became a highly successful businessman and entrepreneur who founded several companies in Southeast Asia. He also co-founded the Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation. He played a key role in the development of the region's economy, and his contributions helped to create jobs and stimulate growth. He was named the King of Rubber and the Pineapple King, and became one of the richest men in Southeast Asia in the 1950s to 1960s, and yet he lived a simple frugal lifestyle. Lee Kong Chian was a generous philanthropist who donated millions of dollars to charitable causes throughout his life. He used his personal money to start the Lee Foundation, which continues to donate to educational institutions, healthcare, and social welfare.

The colourful and chequered history of Singapore's foremost tertiary institution from the time it began as a medical school in 1905 to what it is today, is engagingly recounted in this book, along with anecdotes of famous and colourful characters who have studied or taught there, and illustrations, which are generously peppered throughout the book.

This wide-ranging collection of essays examines the arts of Southeast Asia in context. Contributors study the creation, use, and local significance of works of art, illuminating the many complex links between an object's aesthetic qualities and its origins in a community.

Liu Kang: Essays on Art and Culture is a testament to the inexorable passion of an artist who knew no boundaries. This collection of essays, which Liu Kang wrote over 44 years, offers an insight into the artist’s myriad interests: interior design, music, literature, dance, photography, medical science, and the visual arts. Beyond these topics, Liu Kang’s contributions as a first generation Nanyang artist and art educator come to the fore through his thoughts and ideas about art societies, exhibitions, artists, the development of art education, and the growth of art in Singapore and the region. Liu Kang wrote his essays in Chinese. They have been translated into English for this volume, and are accompanied by commentaries that help contextualise one’s reading. This volume also contains snapshots of the artist’s life—from old photographs of Liu Kang travelling or painting, to that of the people he wrote about in his essays.