Xue Song was born in Anhui, China in 1965, and graduated in 1988 from the Shanghai Theatre Academy's Department of Stage Design. One of the key artists of the Chinese Pop Art movement, Xue Song's work is also representative of the "New Shanghai School". His art traverses East and West, historical memory and reality, as well as traditional culture and contemporary viewpoints.

Xue Song's initial artistic experiments began in the 1980s, a time when China was rapidly transforming and opening up to the world, and the modernisation of its art world was in full swing. Ideas that challenged traditional aesthetics, such as Pop Art, inspired many Chinese artists. Influenced by the early collage works of Robert Rauschenberg (1925-2008), Xue Song began to experiment with collage in his graduation year, and his early works were predominantly executed in abstract and expressionist styles.

A studio fire accident in 1991 was the turning point for Xue Song's artistic career. Fire and collage consequently became his trademark techniques, with flames and ashes used to transform disparate printed fragments into an image that addresses wider issues such as society, politics, tradition, humanities, fashion and aesthetics.

His works form part of important collections, including the National Art Museum of China, Shanghai Art Museum, Shanghai's Long Museum, Hong Kong's M+, Boston's Museum of Fine Arts, USC Pacific Asia Museum, Bonn Museum of Modern Art, Switzerland, the Guy & Myriam Ullens Foundation, the Uli Sigg Collection, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Fondation Cartier.