The Staff

  • Haiyao Zheng is the General Manager and Curator of the MET, she is also the Secretary to the Trustees. Haiyao graduated from Fudan University in Shanghai with a BA in Chinese Literature and a MA in Comparative Literature, then from City University in London with a MSc in Information Science. Haiyao has worked in various organisations and companies over the past thirty years, including Central St Martin’s College of Art and Design, National Art Library of Victoria & Albert Museum, Westminster University, Wesizwe Platinum Ltd in South Africa. She was the Manager for the Muban Foundation between 1999-2004. Haiyao is also a regular contributor to many Chinese newspapers and magazines. She has published over 20 books and translations in Mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan.

  • Dr. Anne Farrer is the Senior Research Fellow of the MET. BA in Chinese, and PhD in late Ming woodblock illustration, School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London. Historian of Chinese painting and graphic art. 1983-4: assistant to the curator of Chinese Art in the Eastern Art Department, Ashmolean Museum; 1984-2000: Assistant Keeper responsible for Chinese painting, prints and the Chinese Central Asian collections in the Department of Oriental Antiquities, British Museum; 2000-present Programme Director for the MA in East Asian Art, Sotheby’s Institute of Art – London; 2005-present Administrator at the Muban Educational Trust. Exhibitions and accompanying publications include Caves of the Thousand Buddhas: Chinese Art from the Silk Route, The Brush Dances and the Ink Sings, A Garden Bequest-Plants from Japan, and Chinese Printmaking Today: Woodblock Printing in China 1980 – 2000. Research interests include woodblock printing of seventeenth and eighteenth century China, and prints of modern and contemporary period.

  • David Barker is the Senior Research Fellow of the MET. Awarded an undergraduate degree in Fine Art in 1966 and a post-graduate degree from The University of London in 1967. He also studied Chinese at Goldsmiths’ College, London in the 1960s, and at The Chinese Peoples University, Beijing and Leeds University during the 1980s. He retired from the University of Ulster as Emeritus Reader in Printmaking in 2005 having taught there since in 1968. David Barker is an Honorary Professor in the China National Academy of Fine Arts in Hangzhou and in the Lu Xun Academy of Fine Arts in Shenyang and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Painter-Printmakers. His research interest is in the history and technology of Chinese printmaking and he has contributed to a number of books published by The British Library, The British Museum The Muban Foundation and The China National Academy of Fine Arts contributing regularly to the journal Printmaking Today.His book Traditional Techniques in Contemporary Chinese Printmaking was published by A&C Black in 2005. David Barker acted as the Secretary to The Muban Educational Trust from 2009 to 2015, he is also Chief Editor for the catalogues of Novel Energy Ltd in Beijing. Current projects include research for a book on the Printmaking Department of the China National Academy of Fine Art with an emphasis on the Zi Zhu Zhai traditional printmaking workshop.

  • Shiyun graduated from Chelsea College of Arts in London with a BA in Fine Art and a MA in Curating and Collections. Shiyun is a project assistant at the MET.

  • Kira graduated from University of Oxford with a BA in Computer Science and Philosophy. She is currently doing a MA in Philosophy at Kings College London. Kira is a project assistant at the MET.