Song Huai-Kuei (1937–2006), widely known during her lifetime as Madame Song, was a legend in the spheres of Chinese art, film, music, and fashion during the 1980s and 1990s. With her husband, Bulgarian fibre artist Maryn Varbanov (1932–1989), Song helped foster a forward-looking creative scene and cultivated a modern, international lifestyle in China at a time when the country was largely isolated from the rest of the world for much of the Cold War.

This Special Exhibition brings to light Madame Song’s fascinating multiple identities and professional pursuits. It chronicles her life and practice from the 1950s to the early 2000s and unveils Song’s thus-far overlooked and underestimated influence on China's transformation into the cosmopolitan and culturally diverse society it is today.