Yao Dixiong was born in Urumqi in 1949. In 1983, he became the first Chinese painter to receive sponsorship from the Australian government. He is currently the Chairman of the Sino-Australia Research Association for Indigenous Art, the Dean of the Horse Culture and Art Academy of China Horse Industry Association, the Honorary Academician of the Russian Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the Honorary Chairman of the Artists Association of the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps.
He has won the Lifetime Achievement Award conferred by the Marquis Who's Who In The World of America, the “Outstanding Contribution to Art” Golden Key Award, and the 20th Century Outstanding Achievement Award from the Dictionary of International Biography of Cambridge.