Born in Changzhou city, Jiangsu province, China, Hong Lei graduated from the Nanjing Academy of Arts in 1987 and pursued further studies in to engraving at the Central Academy of Fine Arts in 1993. His photographs were selected in many exhibitions in China and abroad such as the first Guangzhou Biennale, 1992; Alors, la china, Pompidou Center, Paris 2003; Between Past and Future: New Photography and Video from China, University of Chicago and International Center of Photography in New York, 2004. He held his first solo exhibition in America: "An Alternative Beauty" in New York in 2003.