Yonfan was a highly influential Chinese cinematographer, director and art collector of the XXth century. His work was founded on trans-cultural references, which made him an iconic character of the 1970s to 1990s Hong Kong.

Yonfan encounters T'ang Haywen in the 1980s, through Madame Song, another member of the artistic circles of Hong Kong. In 1991, T'ang's portrait is included alongside Zao Wou-Ki, Chang Dai-Chien and Yeoh Ming Pei in Yonfan's book of photographic portraits.

Yonfan elaborates a project for an exhibition in Hong Kong of T'ang's works. The artist gives him in spring of 1991 a series of Portraits in the same square format. Unfortunately, T'ang Haywen's premature death in autumn 1991 cuts the project short. This portrait is part of the series of Portraits destined for the Hong Kong exhibition. In 1997, Yonfan gifts the Guimet museum in Paris a major donation of Chinese art, including the very first Song Dynasty painting in the French collections. Just one year later, he gives the Guimet museum twelve of the Portraits by T'ang Haywen, in memory of his friend.