Han, born in 1898, trained as a painter first in Shanghai and then in France. He joined the Party in 1923. He was sent to Northwest China in the 1940s, where he was responsible for liaison work between the Party and local communities. He led archaeological excavations there and studied, categorized and recorded murals in the Kizil caves in Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region, many of which date back to the third century. He died in a plane crash in 1947.

The National Art Museum owns 135 of Han's paintings, including copies of the Kizil murals. It held an exhibition displaying some of the works in 2018 to mark the 120th anniversary of the artist's birth, introducing the contribution to the country's history of this little-known artist to the public.