Ma Liuming was born in 1969 in Huangshi, Hubei. From 1987 to 1991, he studied at the Oil Painting Department of the Hubei Institute of Fine Arts, where his academic training infused his artistic language with structural tension. In 1993, he initiated his performance art practice through his androgynous persona, Fen-Ma Liuming, blurring the boundaries of gender and identity. This persona became an iconic symbol within the East Village artist community in Beijing. Throughout the 1990s, Ma staged multiple performance art pieces in public spaces such as the Great Wall, using his body as a medium to challenge societal discipline and explore the relationship between individual existence and collective gaze. His work is rooted in a philosophical inquiry into the theme of survival, positioning the body within the intense conflicts of the social transition period. While continuing the idealistic undertones of the 1980s, his physically embodied resistance became a defining example of the confrontational aesthetics that characterized Chinese performance art in the 1990s.

In 1993, British artists Gilbert and George visited Beijing for an exhibition and took the opportunity to explore the East Village art community. Unexpectedly, Ma Liuming presented them with an impromptu performance: In a sparsely furnished room, with Pink Floyd’s music playing in the background, Ma removed his shirt and gazed around the space. Eventually, his eyes fixed on a crack in the ceiling. Climbing onto a table, he reached up and probed the crack with his hand. Suddenly, a red liquid, resembling blood, began to seep through the gap, running down his fingers and onto his body… This performance was later titled Dialogue with Gilbert & George. In the days that followed, the East Village artists were exhilarated by the event. They gathered and talked through the night, believing that performance art was the most powerful way to express the experience of existence. It would become—and indeed, has already become—the most distinctive characteristic of their artistic community.