Zao Wou-Ki received his formal training at the School of Fine Arts in Hangzou, China. He departed for Paris in 1948 and immersed himself in the art of the European avant-garde. It was also at this time that he made his first forays into printmaking, an art form which he devoted himself to, in the great tradition of French peintre-graveurs, throughout his career.
 
Under the influence of Paul Klee, Zao Wou-Ki's etchings from the early 1950's, shifted towards more schematic visual vocabulary, inspired by pictograms and hieroglyphs. These symbolic landscapes, often depicted with a sun or moon and inhabited by birds and beasts, boats and fishes, are evocative of a prelapsarian world in which humanity is intimately integrated with the natural world.