Born in Wuxi, Jiangsu, China, but raised in Shanghai where, by his own account, he first began painting on sidewalks. Ting ever enrolled Shanghai Fine Arts School. He moved to Hong Kong in 1946. Then he moved to Paris in 1952 where he formed close relationships with members of the CoBra group. In 1960, he immigrated to New York, where he became involved with Pop artists. Ting published a book of his poems entitled "One Cent Life" illustrated with original lithographs by numerous American and European artists. He became American citizen in 1974.
In 1977, he was awarded a fellowship from the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation and published "Red Mouth", a book of erotic drawings and paintings. Since 2001, he has resided in Amsterdam. The use of color was unique. His paintings have also been collected by many museums, including: Metropolitan Museum in New York, MoMA and Guggenheim Museum of Arts.
