Qiu Jie, pen name “Ta-xiang Shan-ren” (Recluse from a Distant Land), was born in Shanghai in 1961. As a child, Qiu Jie was left to the care of his grandparents in Shanghai when his parents were relocated to Anhui province. Raised by his grandparents, Qiu Jie began drawing at the age of ten. He would practice many hours each day by tracing newspaper images of workers, farmers, and soldiers. In 1978, his fine record enabled him to skip a grade, and he was admitted to the Art Department of the Shanghai Light Industry College. After graduation, he worked for six years as an art designer for an instrument company in Shanghai. During this period, his work took him to cities and provinces throughout China where he organized product displays and advertisements. This travel gave him the opportunity to see the country and visit famous sites. To this day these experiences continue to serve as an inexhaustible source of creative inspiration.

Qiu held his first solo exhibition when he was merely twenty-four, in May 1985 at the Xuhui Cultural Center. In 1989, supported by the recommendation of two Swiss artists, he enrolled at the Academy of Fine Arts in Geneva. He then began working on large-scale drawings and oil paintings that require six months to two years to complete. He started to explore artistic forms and contents unique to his generation, and re-examine the Chinese Revolution as a unique modern experience. This endows his works with a dynamic tension borne out of incongruity and poetry. He has exhibited internationally and his works is found in important collections including The Saatchi Gallery, MOCA Shanghai, Geneva Contemporary Art Foundation and Amsterdam Museum of Fine Arts.