He is the father of Ji-li Jiang, the author of Red Scarf Girl.
O was born in Shanghai in 1927 and attended British and American missionary schools in China.
[1][2] During the Cultural Revolution he was falsely accused of counter-revolutionary crimes and was detained and forced to do hard labour by the Chinese government.
O and his family left China and settled in the United States in the 1980s to take care of his daughter Ji-yun's children.
O resides in San Francisco area[3] and is married to Ying Chen.