Xu Jiang, president of the China Academy of Art, remembers vividly that in the rainy eve of the 2004 Spring Festival, Xi Jinping, then the Party chief of Zhejiang province, visited the construction site of the Zhejiang Art Museum, which would open in 2008.

When Xi saw Xu wearing a traditional Chinese-styled suit, Xi said, "It's better to build a museum in a Chinese style, just like Professor Xu's suit, which you recognize as Chinese at first glance."

Xu said it is because of Xi's support that the China Academy of Arts in Zhejiang has developed into one of the largest art institutes in the world today.