A graduate of the 1982 class of the Beijing Film Academy, he was an inaugural member of China's "Fifth Generation" movement.
Like many of his generation, his early life was thrown into turmoil by the Cultural Revolution.
His father, an artist, was denounced as a rightist, and He was sent to the outskirts of Beijing where he did manual labor as a welder for six years.
[1] He's early career was as an art director, where he worked on many important films of the early Fifth Generation movement, including The Big Parade (1986, directed by Chen Kaige) and Widow Village (1988, directed by Wang Jin).
In 1993, He found critical success with his rural drama Country Teachers, which won the Golden Rooster Award for best picture.