Wu's father came to Taiwan from China after the war, and his mother was a local Hakka girl. The family was fairly poor, and lived in the mountains near Taichung, close to a military dependents 'village and a Hakka village; this meant that as Wu grew up, he was exposed to a variety of different lifestyles and cultures.
吳傳治的父親是外省人，母親是客家人，家境貧困的他，從小生長在台中山上，住處鄰近眷村與客家庄，他的成長歷程裡，因此混雜著各種族群的生命經驗。