As a photojournalist for "921 Minbao" and "Taiwan News," Watan Wuma saw victims suffering from the 921 earthquakes in 1999, and many were indigenous. After that, he decided to take a break from journalism. Watan assisted in stage shooting in Molin Wang's project in the Body Phase Studio. And he was the stage designer/manager for Wang’s "Black Hole" series. In 2003, Watan assisted Seiji Shimoda's Performance Art Workshop in the Huashan 1914 Creative Park. Watan was invited to present his artwork "No Photography" as his final project for the workshop. From then on, he was bonded with art. 

In 2004, as a performance artist, Watan showed his artwork "Ancestor's Face" in the Japan International Performance Art Festival planned by Seiji Shimoda. Although Watan's early artworks did not break away from theater elements with scripts and monologues, they were still conceptually mixed with more narrative and storytelling. Therefore, his early works were amateur. In the "Ancestor's Face," Watan's concern about indigenous peoples' life and laborers, have shown anti-globalized capitalism narrative. After 2004, with Shimoda's promotion, Watan's artwork was shown extensively in Beijing, Macau, Chile, Uruguay, Argentina, Ireland, etc.