Yesterday I was asked by Sir David Tang to speak at his new China Exchange about the nature of the relationship between the Royal Academy and China in the light of our forthcoming Ai Weiwei exhibition.   The short answer is that it goes back a long way to the time of the foundation of the RA when William Chambers at least had a good knowledge of Chinese architecture from his three visits during the 1740s with the Swedish East India Company and when the modeller, Tan-Che-Qua, was included in the background of Zoffany’s early portrait of the Academicians.   There have also been a number of major exhibitions of Chinese art, beginning with the Great China exhibition in 1935/6 and including the Genius of China in 1973/4 and China: The Three Emperors in 2005/6.