Born in Wuxi, Jiangsu, China, raised in Shanghai, where he started as a street painter. Ting had been enrolled in Shanghai Fine Arts School. He moved to Hong Kong in 1946. Then he moved to Paris in 1952 where he developed close relationships with the 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. His colorful paintings have been collected by many museums, including Metropolitan Museum in New York, MoMA and Guggenheim Museum of Arts