He Yongkun was born in the southern Chinese city of Kunming, in the Yunnan Province. Many of the subjects of his work draws on the rural areas around Kunming and the people who inhabit it.
"Deep Forest" is set in the Shilin Stone Forest in Kunming, Yunnan, China. A goatherd, a Sani, a branch of the Yi ethnic group, wearing a traditional colorful embroidered costume, tends a small flock of goats in a flowering forest of fruit trees. In the background some of the columnar limestone structures of the Shilin Stone Forest loom like large sculptures.
According to native folklore, the area of Shilin Stone Forest is the location of where a Yi woman, called Ashima, was born, who is said to have turned to stone when she failed to received permission to marry her true love.