Liu Tan was born in 1953 in Nanjing, and followed Mr Yaming in art practice. He was admitted to PhD of the Jiangsu Art Academy and relocated to the US in 1981. He later settled in Beijing in 2005. His works were kept in collection at the British Museum in the UK, the Musee Guimet in France, the Arthur M. Sackler Museum at the Harvard University in the US.