Qiu Jie was born in Shanghai, in 1961. After graduating from Shanghai Fine Arts in 1981, he pursued a career as a designer and decorator for a state-owned company. At the Art Department of Shanghai University, he learned to draw in the style of realism, the official artistic movement of the time. In 1985 he presented his first solo exhibition at the Xu Hui Palace of Culture. He later moved to Switzerland in 1989 and graduated with a degree in Multimedia at the School of Fine Arts in Geneva in 1995. 

He has won several prizes including the first prize in the Visual Arts of the Geneva competition (1994), the federal prize of Fine Arts, Geneva (1995), a scholarship for his studio granted by the city of Geneva (1996), the Simon I. Patino scholarship granted by La Cité des Arts, Paris (1995). His art is in various museums and institutions all around Europe and Asia. 

The “Cultural Revolution” became a significant cultural moment for Jie, he reproduced numerous propaganda images from local newspapers and posters. His pencil drawings confront the history of Chinese society and socialist propaganda, alongside Western culture. He is inspired by existing images extracted from an infinite number of sources by creating nested compositions forming new narratives, but still independent in their isolation as separate images. 

Qie Jie is a pseudonym meaning, “The man who comes from other mountains.” Jie uses this to describe his experience as an artist living in both China and Switzerland. This is how he signs his works with the characters Ta Xiang Shan Ren.

His technique with watercolor and acrylic paints heightens detail through his specific bold color choices and soft brushstrokes.