Wen C. Fong was born in Shanghai, China in 1930. He came to the United States at the age of 18. He received bachelor's and master's degrees in medieval European art history and a Ph.D in art history, with a focus on ancient China, from Princeton University. His doctoral work became the basis for his first book The Lohans and a Bridge to Heaven. He taught at Princeton for 40 years and helped establish the nation's first doctoral degree program in Chinese art and archaeology there in 1959. His other books included Beyond Representation: Chinese Painting and Calligraphy 8th-14th Century. He also helped the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York build one of the most comprehensive collections of Asian art and antiquities in the world. He retired from the Met in 2000. He died from leukemia on October 3, 2018 at the age of 88.
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