Wong was born on January 21, 1922, and raised in San Francisco; she was the fifth daughter of an immigrant family from Guangdong, China, which grew to have nine children.

Wong's career in pottery took off after she convinced a merchant on Grant Avenue in Chinatown, San Francisco, to allow her to put her workshop in his store window.

[6] Her ceramics were later displayed in art museums across the United States, including a 2002 exhibition at the Chinese Historical Society of America.

[10] As mentioned above in "Literary Work", during the Cold War Period of the 1950s, Wong was chosen as to go on a diplomatic tour ("good will mission") in Asia to exemplify the cultural and racial diversity of the U.S. democracy.

[11] In 1976, PBS made a half-hour special for public television based on Wong’s first volume Fifth Chinese Daughter, called Jade Snow, in which she was played by actress Freda Foh Shen.