Wang was a painter and skilled artisan living in his native Ningbo when he was hired by the pioneer Christian missionary Hudson Taylor to work in his home. As he was working one day on a ladder he overheard a local basket-maker, Feng Ninggui, who had professed faith in Jesus Christ, explaining why he no longer made incense containers that were used for idol worship. Wang was soon converted to Christianity as well under the ministry of Taylor in the days before the founding of the China Inland Mission.