Born in Shanghai, China in 1958, Fan Dongwang studied traditional Chinese art at Shanghai School of Arts and Crafts (SSAC) in the 1970's and later became an art teacher at SSAC. As an established Shanghai artist, his work exhibited regularly in Shanghai Art Gallery since 1982, including 1986 Shanghai Art Museum Inaugural Art Exhibition, 1987 Shanghai International Art Festival. As a member of the top professional body Chinese Artists Association he was awarded the Prize for Excellent Work for Shanghai International Culture Exchange. In 1990 Fan migrated to Australia as an artist of ‘Distinguished Talent'. He studied Master of Arts at COFA, NSW University in 1995, and received a PostGraduate Award and completed Doctor of Creative Art at Wollongong University in 1999. His doctoral thesis Shifting Perspectives and the Body established a theoretical model for comparing the differences between the representation of spatial depth in Chinese and European paintings. Currently lives and works in Sydney.