Professor Selia Jinhua Tan of the Guangdong Institute for Overseas Chinese Hometown Studies, Wuyi University, is the founder of the Cangdong Community Development and Cultural Heritage Education Center which manages the Blue Tile Heritage Center.

She is a leading expert on the history and culture of the ancestral home regions of overseas Cantonese migrants, and the lead researcher responsible for the designation of the Kaiping Diaolou (fortress mansions) as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

She is an expert in heritage preservation, conservation, and management. Selia received her PhD from the Department of Architecture, University of Hong Kong. She also studied Chinese American history as a visiting scholar at Azusa Pacific University (2003), the University of British Columbia in Canada (2016,) and Stanford University (2018).

She serves as the Co-Principal Investigator of the Cangdong Village Project, a transnational research partnership between the Stanford Archaeology Center, Guangdong Provincial Institute of Archaeology and Cultural Relics, and the Guangdong Qiaoxiang Cultural Research Center at Wuyi University. She has offered lectures, exhibitions, and exchanges at overseas institutions such as Tsinghua University, Sun Yat-Sen University, Central Academy of Fine Arts, as well as Harvard, Stanford, University of British Columbia, Durham University, University of Hong Kong, and Taiwan University

Irene Lam (Lam Oiying or Lin Aiying) is the granddaughter of Lam Tee Chew, the progenitor who built the ancestral halls, twin houses, and water pavilion that comprise the Blue Tile Heritage Center. She is an American-born Chinese whose parents immigrated from China and Hong Kong in 1948.

Since 2014, after learning of the legacy left by her grandfather, she has worked to reclaim and save these historic buildings from being demolished, for the benefit of the region, for overseas Chinese, and for all interested in Chinese culture. 

It is also her hope that the Lam clan, both in Jiangmen and scattered across the globe – the U.S., Canada, Europe, Singapore, China, and Malaysia – can draw inspiration from Lam Tee Chew and always have a place of connection for generations to come.

She has spent eight years in the tourism industry, and 27 years in community development and rural revitalization in the U.S.  

Chen Weiyang is the builder for the Blue Tile Heritage Center restoration. He specializes in historic preservation and has a deep understanding of the rich connotations and techniques of traditional building methods and of the sourcing of materials.

He has restored over 100 historic buildings dating from the Ming Dynasty to the Republican Era. Importantly, his company is certified by the government to restore historic buildings.

He is a master and the president of the Sunwui Choy Lee Fut (Xinhui Cai Li Fo) Association, a son of the famed kung-fu and overseas Chinese village of Jingmei.

His ancestor, Chen Xiang (Chan Heung), founded Choy Lee Fut in Jingmei in 1836. It is one of the major styles of martial arts in Southern China and listed as National Intangible Cultural Heritage. The Association has an international presence with thousands of followers worldwide.