In 2000, Cao Mengqin flunked out of the microelectronics department and completed the video works Bathroom and Earthquake from 2006 to 2008. Since 2010, he has been studying (ancient Chinese) iconography with Dr. Ni Yibin and working at the Institute of Corpus Studies and Applications of Shanghai International Studies University (SISU) as a researcher and an academic editor for the Centre for Study of Stories of China (CSSC), constructing Multimodal Corpus of Pun Rebus (MCPR) to study the traditional Chinese auspicious meanings.

Between 2016 and 2022, he adopted still photography as a medium, using photomontage, artificial colouring and other methods to recreate the spiritual world with classical tendencies, exploring the issues of time and space and fiction vs. reality in photography. The main subjects of his works include Buddhist statues, Chinese landscape (shan shui), Chinese gardens and cultural heritage. The media used in his works are mostly East Asian handmade paper and silk, and it is from these materials that he has developed his craftsmanship applied to photography. During this period, he founded the duo Fang Mengqin with photographer Fang Xiaohe.

From 2023, he shifts focus towards creating mixed visual works involving film and still . The themes range from semi-fictional realism to visual representation based on Chinese historical stories.