Wang Mo-Jen was born Wang An-Tai on January 4, 1934, in Huangmei County, Hubei Province, and grew up in Beiping. Because of the Chinese civil war, Wang fled to Taiwan in 1948, where for many years he audited courses at the Chinese Department of the Taiwan Provincial Teachers College (today’s National Taiwan Normal University). Wang has worked as editor and reporter of the Taiwan Civil Defense Broadcasting Station, reporter for China Daily News and Economic Daily News, writer at the China Times and editor of the Ren Jian literary supplement, and reporter at United Daily News.

Wang started writing in the 1950s. He has published over a hundred works in major newspapers and magazines. Most of his works focus on clashing values and emotional upheavals caused by historical transitions in industrial and commercial society. Wang’s portrayal of the struggles of the lower classes is particularly profound. 　Published novels include Solitary Tears, Some Other Place, Chou Chin-Mu’s Comedy, The Wingless Bird, and 　Alian Returns to the River Gorge.

Wang left Taiwan for the United States in 1985. In San Francisco, he worked as chief reporter of the International Daily News, director of the Central News, and editor-in-chief of Haihwa TV. He wrote many new literary works during this period. In 2015, he published his autobiographic novel The Earth Is Dancing, revealing his experience of how he ended up in Taiwan when he was young but was forced to leave Taiwan in the prime of his life due to the repressive authoritarian government. He has received an honorary doctorate from National Tsing Hua University. In 2017, the Institute of Taiwan Literature of National Tsing Hua University collected the works of Wang Mo-Jen and published them together with The Earth Is Dancing in The Complete Works of Wang Mo-Jen. The university also submitted a nomination for a Nobel Prize in Literature for Wang Mo-Jen.

Wang Mo-Jen passed away of a heart attack in his San Francisco home on December 30, 2020, having reached the age of 86.