with ancestry in yancheng, jiangsu, republic of china, wang was born in jiangxi to wáng zhāng (王章) and yú jiéhóng (俞洁虹/俞潔虹). he moved to taiwan in 1952 with his family. he studied his later part of elementary school in kaohsiung, and graduated from the affiliated senior high school of national taiwan normal university in taipei, taiwan. he later moved to hong kong. he started studying physics in ucla in 1963, and received his bachelor of science in 1967, and his master of science in 1968, and his doctoral in low temperature physics - superfluid and solid state physics in 1971.