As an artist who was well versed in world literature, it is evident that his body of work has been influenced by Egyptian mythology as well as his following of Taoism, which embodied his beliefs in the universal renewal of life.

During the mid-1960s he studied painting at the Cooper Union School of Art in New York City, and during the early seventies lived in Paris and Amsterdam, where, in 1976, he had his first one-man show.

Rosa von Praunheim portrayed Cheng in his studio in the Chelsea Hotel for his award-winning film Tally Brown, New York (1979).

Notable collectors of his work are Miles Davis, Louise Fletcher, Aldo Cipullo, Princess Caroline of Monaco, Alfonso Ossorio, Peggy Cooper Cafritz, Countess Claude de Lesse and others.

Ching Ho Cheng's personal letters, photos, drawings and artifacts are housed at the Smithsonian Archives of American Art in Washington, DC.