The endowment, with initial principal funding of $100,000 was established by the Dragon Summit Foundation in New York City.  The fund will support acquisitions, publications, exhibitions, events, symposia, and film festivals related to East Asian culture organized by the C.V. Starr East Asian Library at Columbia University. 

“Dragon Summit Foundation (DSF) is a non-profit organization committed to promoting cultural exchange between the United States and East Asia”, said Jake Xinfeng Jia, President of DSF, “We established the Dragon Summit Culture Endowment Fund at Columbia University because the C.V. Starr East Asian Library at CU has played a prominent role in the study of East Asian cultures. We hope that the Fund may further support the development of cultural exchange between the United States and East Asia.”

“Starr East Asian Library holds one of the best East Asian Collections in the world and maintains an active outreach program in East Asian Culture” said Jim Cheng, Director of the C.V. Starr East Asian Library. “I am deeply grateful to the Dragon Summit Foundation’s support, which will certainly enhance our efforts in collection development and outreach activities.” 

A private reception will be held at the Starr Library on Jan. 22, 2016 to celebrate the establishment of the endowment fund.

The C.V. Starr East Asian Library is one of the major collections for the study of East Asia in the United States, with over 1 million volumes of Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Tibetan, and Western language materials, as well as some holdings in Mongol and Manchu, over 8,500 periodical titles, 4.5 million e-books, and many archival and special collections. The collection, established in 1902, is particularly strong in Chinese history, literature, and social sciences; Japanese literature, history, and religion, particularly Buddhism; Korean history, and modern Tibetan studies. For more information, please visit the Starr East Asian website.