Li's parents both worked at the Sichuan Chongqing Steel and Iron Company. When he was three years old, his parents bought him an accordion. He studied the instrument with Tan Jianmin, a music professor in China, and mastered it when he was four. Only one year later, he won the top prize at the Chongqing Children's Accordion Competition. At seven years old Li began to learn the piano. He continued to study with Dan Zhaoyi for another nine years. In 1994, he learned at the Shenzhen Arts School at Shenzhen, China, and later learned at the Hochschule für Musik, Theater und Medien Hannover in Hanover, Germany.