HIGHLIGHTS
Jay Brown - Jay studied Chinese language, the history of Chinese art, and contemporary art at Princeton University, where he wrote a undergraduate thesis on humor and identity Xu Bing and Cai Guoqiang's work. At Princeton, he co-founded with Steve Caputo an innovative architectural design competition called Prospects, and founded Paideia, a group that brings students and professors together for discussions over meals. He has worked for the National Palace Museum in Taipei, the National Gallery of Art in Washington, and the Museum of Modern Art in New York, and the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco. Beginning in 2002, Jay worked for The Nature Conservancy's China Program, based in Kunming, the Yunnan provincial capital. Jay co-founded Lijiang Studio in 2004 with Chinese painter Mu Yuming. Since 2004, Jay has collaborated with a lot of different people to make Lijiang Studio happen.
Jake Caccia - Jake graduated from Eton College and Glasgow School of Art where he developed a deep interest in of Asian traditional art. He then recieved a two year postgraduate scholarship to study Japanese language and Japanese Calligraphy. He studied Japanese language at SOAS then at Tokyo Naganuma School and traditional brush painting and calligraphy with several eminent teachers including Omina Shiraseki. After Tokyo, he moved to China, working first as Creative Director for the Lancanjiang advertising agency, and then founded Andao Tea. He lives in Kunming with his wife Jess, a Naxi woman from Lijiang, his sons Leo and Lucian, 3 and 1 years old. Jake designed this website and most of Lijiang Studio's printed matter.
Yang Zemin - In 1978, when Yang Zemin was two years old, his father moved from Kunming back to Lijiang to play erhu and flute with a group of Naxi musicians which was resuming playing a form of music that first came to the Lijiang area in the late 14th century. At 14 Yang Zemin joined this group of elders who had kept this form alive between 1949 and 1976. Most of these elders are gone now, and Yang is now one of the principal - and youngest - musicians in Ancient Naxi Music (naxi guyue).Yang Zemin is also interested in other forms of traditional Naxi and Chinese music, Western classical music, and contemporary music. He has been abroad to perform Naxi Guyue in about 25 cities, and has welcomed the chance to hear new music on those trips. He is fluent in Naxi, English and Chinese.
Organizationally, Lijiang Studio is the Lijiang Studio Foundation, a 501c3 not-for-profit registered in the United States, and the Lijiang Association for Cultural Research and Development, a not-for-profit registered in the city of Lijiang.