Song was an enthusiastic artist from an early age and began painting with the encouragement of his mother – though his father was not so supportive – and first trained in oil painting. He graduated in 1989 from the Fine Arts Department of Capital Normal University in Beijing, and slowly began painting in a less conventional manner following his 1992 Solo Exhibition 'Show of Oil Paintings' in Beijing's Culture Palace. In 1992 he married a fellow artist, Yin Xiuzhen. The two turned their back on their academic training and turned to avant garde and experimental art forms including performance and video.
