About YNAU-Yunnan Arts University

Yunnan Arts University is a full-time regular higher education institution in the arts, established by the People's Government of Yunnan Province with the approval of the Ministry of Education of the People's Republic of China. Founded on June 2, 1959, the university's predecessor can be traced back to the Cultural Life Department and the Teachers College of the National Southwest Associated University in 1938. It is a comprehensive higher art institution with distinctive features and a wide range of artistic disciplines in the southwestern region of China, as well as one of the eight comprehensive general undergraduate colleges of art in China.

Institutional Positioning and Development Goal: Building a nationally renowned high-level art university with international influence and distinctive characteristics. Talent Development Focus: Upholding moral education, nurturing application-oriented and high-quality arts professionals with commendable moral values, exceptional professional skills, courage towards practice, creativity, and a strong sense of responsibility. Educational Structure: Centering on undergraduate education while actively developing international student programs and Sino-foreign cooperative education, vigorously expanding graduate education, and building a high-level applied arts university with doctoral, master's, and bachelor's degree programs in a "one core, two wings" framework. Professional Development: Establishing an undergraduate program framework with precise positioning, rational layout, optimized structure, distinctive features, and a strong commitment to quality. Service Orientation: Rooted in Yunnan, serving the nation, expanding influence in South and Southeast Asia, and pursuing internationalized development.

International Exchange: Yunnan Arts University actively integrates into the Belt and Road Initiative, serving the broader opening-up strategy while leveraging its professional strengths. It successfully organized the "Colourful Mutualism" — Global Art and Design Competition Based on COP15, with Hani ethnic students taking the stage at the COP15 main venue to represent global youth, effectively promoting Yunnan's outstanding achievements as a leader in ecological conservation and a strong province for ethnic cultural heritage. Aligned with Yunnan's efforts to become a hub for engagement with South Asia and Southeast Asia—one of the three strategic positioning objectives for the province, it has successfully hosted international student cultural journeys and theatrical productions themed China-Laos Railway, and has organized the Kunming Forum on Education Cooperation in South & Southeast Asia for six consecutive years. It has developed the "Arts+" international arts performance brand, continuously enhancing its global influence. Moreover, it has established close collaborative exchanges with nearly 50 esteemed universities, colleges, and art institutions in 18 countries and regions, including the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia, Vietnam, as well as China's Hong Kong SAR, Macao SAR, and Taiwan. In 2020, the Sino-Italian Undergraduate Education Program in Environmental Design, jointly organized by Yunnan Arts University and Istituto Europeo di Design (IED), was approved by the Ministry of Education of the People's Republic of China, steadily advancing internationalization and forming a comprehensive, multi-level educational opening-up framework.

Over the past sixty-five years, Yunnan Arts University has brought together a large number of world-renowned artists and art educators, such as Professor Liao Xinxue, an oil painter and sculptor acclaimed by the Paris art scene as a "genius of Chinese fine arts" and known domestically as the "Master of the Border Town"; Professor Fang Yu, one of the earliest Chinese students to study in France, a celebrated translator and a vocal music educator, together with her husband, famous violinist Professor Li Dan; Professor Yuan Xiaocen, a distinguished painter of traditional Chinese painting and sculptor; and renowned representatives of the Yunnan School of Painting, Ding Shaoguang and Jiang Tiefeng. The university has cultivated generations of outstanding cultural and artistic talent, making significant contributions to the prosperity of socialist arts and local socioeconomic development.

Looking ahead, Yunnan Arts University will consistently adhere to the educational philosophy of "inheriting tradition, learning from the folk, embracing both Chinese and Western cultures, and serving society." It will uphold the spirit of "championing inclusiveness to forge ahead," and follow the motto of "practicality, creativity and nobility." Building upon Yunnan's unique geographical and cultural advantages and the academic advantages as a comprehensive arts university, it will actively serve and integrate into the development strategies of China and Yunnan Province to endeavor to build itself into a nationally renowned high-level art university with international influence and distinctive characteristics.