Song was born into a Presbyterian family in Tainan, and received his early education while Taiwan was under Japanese rule.
Song's dissertation was "The Relation of Divine Revelation and Man's Religion in the Theologies of Karl Barth and Paul Tillich.
[3][4] Song received two honorary Doctorate of Divinity degrees, one in 1996 from his alma mater the University of Edinburgh,[5] and another in 2018 from Tainan Theological College where he served as principal.
Song borrowed his methodology from Latin American liberation theology, which adopts largely from a Marxist critique on religion and capitalism.
Song described the people of Asia as being victimized by a history of Western imperialism, both colonially and culturally, creating an identity crisis for Asian Christians.