Huang Jie was a poet, a journalist, a historian, a revolutionary, and a master of Chinese studies. His poetry style, which combined the the Tang and Song styles, was famous at that time. At the end of the Qing Dynasty, he founded the Sinology Preservation Society along with Zhang Taiyan (1868-1936) and other founding members. After the founding of the Republic of China, he joined Nanshe and taught at the Peking and Tsinghua Universities. From 1928 to 1929, he served as the Education Department Director at the Guangdong Provincial Government.

He Man’an, a native of Panyu, Guangdong province, was an important collector of Chinese paintings and calligraphy in the Lingnan region. The name of his studio was Lingbi Shanfang and he was especially fond of collecting artworks by Lingnan masters, literati and politicians.