Yuan Xikun (born 1944 in

Kunming Kunming is the capital and largest city of the province of Yunnan in China. The political, economic, communications and cultural centre of the province, Kunming is also the seat of the provincial government. During World War II, Kunming was a Ch ...

Yunnan Yunnan; is an inland Provinces of China, province in Southwestern China. The province spans approximately and has a population of 47.2 million (as of 2020). The capital of the province is Kunming. The province borders the Chinese provinces ...

Province A province is an administrative division within a country or sovereign state, state. The term derives from the ancient Roman , which was the major territorial and administrative unit of the Roman Empire, Roman Empire's territorial possessions ou ...

) is a

Chinese Chinese may refer to: * Something related to China * Chinese people, people identified with China, through nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity **Han Chinese, East Asian ethnic group native to China. **'' Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic ...

visual artist The visual arts are art forms such as painting, drawing, printmaking, sculpture, ceramics (art), ceramics, photography, video, image, filmmaking, design, crafts, and architecture. Many artistic disciplines such as performing arts, conceptual a ...

and

environmental activist The environmental movement (sometimes referred to as the ecology movement) is a social movement that aims to protect the natural world from harmful environmental practices in order to create sustainable living. In its recognition of humanity a ...

. In 2011, Yuan proposed building a giant sculpture composed of sand collected from five of Earth's

continent A continent is any of several large geographical regions. Continents are generally identified by convention (norm), convention rather than any strict criteria. A continent could be a single large landmass, a part of a very large landmass, as ...

s and water from its

Arctic The Arctic (; . ) is the polar regions of Earth, polar region of Earth that surrounds the North Pole, lying within the Arctic Circle. The Arctic region, from the IERS Reference Meridian travelling east, consists of parts of northern Norway ( ...

and

Antarctic The Antarctic (, ; commonly ) is the polar regions of Earth, polar region of Earth that surrounds the South Pole, lying within the Antarctic Circle. It is antipodes, diametrically opposite of the Arctic region around the North Pole. The Antar ...

regions to draw attention to

ozone depletion Ozone depletion consists of two related events observed since the late 1970s: a lowered total amount of ozone in Earth, Earth's upper atmosphere, and a much larger springtime decrease in stratospheric ozone (the ozone layer) around Earth's polar ...

and

climate change Present-day climate change includes both global warming—the ongoing increase in Global surface temperature, global average temperature—and its wider effects on Earth's climate system. Climate variability and change, Climate change in ...

. Yuan served on the Standing Committee of the

All-China Youth Federation The All-China Youth Federation (ACYF) is a people's organization that represents many youth groups in China, and is managed by the Communist Youth League of China. It was founded on 4 May 1949. Former paramount leaders and General Secretaries ...

and was a member of the 11th Standing Committee of

Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference The Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) is a political advisory body in the People's Republic of China and a central part of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP)'s United front (China), united front system. Its members adv ...

. Yuan serves as the honorary president of the

Sino-American Friendship Association The Sino-American Friendship Association (SAFA) is a nonprofit organization based in New York City whose stated aim is to develop cross-cultural collaboration between the United States and China. SAFA assists schools in running Chinese cultural c ...

Awards and decorations

* Top Philanthropist & Cultural Award (2006) * UNEP Patron for the Arts Environment (2010) * May Day Labor Honor Medal (2011) *

Order of Merit The Order of Merit () is an order of merit for the Commonwealth realms, recognising distinguished service in the armed forces, science, art, literature, or the promotion of culture. Established in 1902 by Edward VII, admission into the order r ...

, 3rd social class (Ukraine, 2008)

References

Living people 1944 births Chinese contemporary artists Chinese environmentalists Recipients of the Order of Merit (Ukraine), 3rd class Honorary members of the Russian Academy of Arts People from Kunming Members of the Standing Committee of the 11th Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference {{environmentalist-stub