Two Chinese cultural institutions – the Yunnan Provincial Museum and Yunnan Art Gallery – joined the Singaporean Woon Brothers Foundation and UK University of Northumbria in signing a cooperation agreement, formalizing a new multiparty partnership of culture and education, in Kunming, Yunnan province, Nov 26.

Over the coming years, the four organizations will work together to promote research into the history and culture of the Nanzhao and Dali kingdoms (which spanned the seventh tothe 13th centuries) and to carry out cultural and educational exchanges.

One of the outcomes of the new partnership will be the establishment of the International Research Center for the History and Culture of Nanzhao and Dali kingdoms.

Dali, today’s Dali Bai autonomous prefecture in western Yunnan province, was the capital of the Nanzhao Kingdom during the Tang Dynasty (618-907) and of the Dali Kingdom during the Song Dynasty (960-1279). For thousands of years it has been a gateway to cultural, commercial and trade exchanges between China and the Southeast and South Asian region.