Li Yan Peng was born in 1958 in Her Bei Province, in a small village located south of Beijing near the Yellow River Plateau. Li graduated from one of the best art schools in China, the Central Academy of Fine Art, in 1981 with a degree in printmaking. His work has been shown both nationally and internationally and is collected by a number of national museums in China such as the Jiang-Shu Museum and the Shen-Zen Museum and by international associations including the Korean Print Making Association and the Portland Art Museum. A print from Li’s Yellow River Plateau reduction woodcut series won first place in the National Art Exhibition in China in 1998. Others from this series, which he began working on in 1992, have also won a variety of other awards.