China-US Business Summit Annual Outstanding Individual Award
2019 - Yongyuan Cui
2018 - Bing Liang
2017 - Barry Morrow
For writing the original script of "Rain Man," Barry Morrow had won the Oscar for Best Screenplay in 1988. Though made like previous statuettes, Morrow’s golden award has been titled as the “Most Favored Statuette.” The statuette was touched by more than hundred-thousands of people; mostly by children and adolescents. There is an emotional story behind the statuette’s fame: when ‘Rain Man’ became a finalist for an Oscar award, the original Rain Man, Kim Peek, a very talented autistic boy, visited Morrow’s home and fell in love with the statuette. Morrow immediately gave Kim Peek the statuette as a personal gift. Morrow encouraged Peek to go on a world tour to raise awareness for autism, teaching the world more about the autistic spectrum.
Until February of 2016, this statuette has traveled to several countries around the globe, however, has not been to the most populated country, China. On February 28th 2016, under Morrow’s assistance, Yongyuan Cui and chairman of the China-US Business Summit, Steven Shen, and the statuette had finally set its feet on Chinese soil-instantly loved and touched by countless youngsters in China. It even has appeared in the opening ceremony of an Autistic School hosted by Yongyuan Cui. Under the accompaniment of Steven Shen, Mr. Morrow has held many lectures in China with his Oscar. A kind heart has no boundaries. Mr. Morrow’s efforts had allowed more Chinese people to understand children who have Autism. Thus, Barry Morrow undoubtedly received the 2017 China-US Business Summit Outstanding Individual Award.
2017 - Xiaoyun Zhang
Quiet, yet dignified and respectable, no one could have imagined that a curator with this much experience would turn out to be a young woman who has exhibited more than a dozen shows in China and the United Stated within a single year. On the day of the 8th China-US Business Summit Opening Ceremony, the elegant, lead curator of the China-US Eminent Painting and Calligraphy exhibition, Xiaoyun Zhang, was interviewed by a reporter in the exhibition area.
“It might be in the genes,” Xiaoyun answered when asked why she entered this field at such a young age. “My mom was a very successful Chinese curator, so I have been going to those painting and calligraphy exhibitions with my parents from an early age. I still remember going to painting and calligraphy auction sites until I was an adolescent. When the item that I auctioned independently at the age of 18 had a substantial value increase two years after, it boosted my interest in the field, and one step at a time, I now have at least five or six years of experience.”
“Why did you choose to specialize in curating cultural paintings and calligraphy of China and the US?” the reporters asked with curiosity. She smiled, and as if the reporter had opened a vast topic of discussion. She replied, “three years ago, I applied for New York University’s Department of Art, it acted as a stepping stone to the world of American Art. Before I came to America, my understanding toward art was only limited to Chinese Art. However, after I studied in the US, I noticed the weight of American Art in the market; an infinite world of art and its variations. What astonished me was the disconnection between the Chinese Art world and the American Art world. Each country has values to be studied and comprehended by others, artists from both countries are only reveled in their own cultures. Furthermore, China's art world is only beginning to rise, whereas the US art world market has already matured and is in full operation. Comparatively, the world's two largest economies are extremely lacking in the exchange of art. When I realized that this vast market’s prospects are incalculable, I set my life time goal, to focus on the China-US art markets, and become an international curator that connects the two nations.”
Xiaoyun Zhang is not the type of artist to brag and boast, but in 2015 she started her own company, the Art Without Borders Foundation, and began to showcase her glorious China-US art exhibitions. Beginning November of 2015 to April of 2017, under her curation, the number of art exhibitions in China and US have reached over a dozen, a number no other corporation in China can compete with. With these successful curatorial experiences, groups of young Chinese and American artists were recruited to join her company, the Art Without Borders Foundation. Just like an unstoppable machine, Xiaoyun Zhang is hurtling in the China-US curatorial industry. At the same time, she has organized a high-end art seminar, bringing American experts to one of China’s ivy league institutions, Peking University, to hold professional seminars and discussions. Due to this series of remarkable connections made between China and the US, the China-US Business Summit organization was pleased to sign her company to join the event this year. The Millennium Biltmore Hotel, the birthplace of the Oscars, became the first venue to showcase a China-US Eminent Painting and Calligraphy exhibition. Dozens of works more than six feet tall were shown to the Summit’s entrepreneurs. Everyone was drawn into the exhibition room; an unforgettable art feast for the viewers.
In 2016, she was invited by the Chelsea Art Competition Organizing Committee as the 31st Chelsea Art Competition judge. The Chelsea Art Competition is well-known in United States for its art festivals. Those who are invited to serve as judges are professionals in the art appreciation field. The collections that she had auctioned all received a substantial increase in value. Of which, two paintings of the 90’s held a predicted value of over 8 million RMB, another 2003 painting was valued as high as 15 million RMB. This kind of success is hard to achieve, even for those who have been in the industry for years.
Looking towards the future, Xiaoyun Zhang is full of confidence. She said, “as more American entrepreneurs are recognized by the Chinese Market, and the development of China’s economy is increasing, Chinese collectors will have more purchasing power. I believe that within the next few years, the Chinese Art market will consistently remain on an upward slope, just as the ‘bull market,’ where everyone involved in the exchange will reap benefits.” As she predicts her standing in the future art market, the confidence on her face hides that fact that she is still very young.
From Xiaoyun Zhang’s achievements, and her family’s artistic origins, as well as her studies in the Department of Art in New York, we are confident to say, that we believe she is an ascending leader as a China-US curator. Chinese and American art fields will be better suited with such a talented person involved in its growth.
2016 - Judy Chu
Judy was the first woman of Chinese descent in the House of Representatives in the United States. Under her promotion, the House of Representatives has agreed to apologize to the US formally adopted legislation in 1882 -- "Chinese Exclusion Act". A new chapter was paved for Chinese-Americans, and as the hero, Judy Chu, a steel rose, continues to blossom extraordinarily every day.