Tan Shaoyuan was born in Qinghai, China, and graduated from the Central Academy of Drama, Department of Stage Design, in 1999. He has built a reputation as a versatile and creative set-designer, and has served as director the ACCSDO Performance & Visual Design Agency and as set designer for the Lin Zhaohua Drama Studio in Beijing. He is known for excellence in set design, lighting design, and multi-media visual arts. His portfolio includes work with many top directors, including a number of plays for Lin Zhaohua. He served as assistant to the set designer for the 1999 performance of the full-length Peony Pavilion at Lincoln Center in New York with director Chen Shizheng. His design has appeared in China, the United States, and Germany, and in 2004 he was awarded the Grand Prix for Stage Design for the Fourth Annual China-Japan International Friendship Award.