Wang was born in an intellectual family in Beijing in 1952. He was sent to a farm in Yunnan province as an "intellectual youth" at the beginning of the Cultural Revolution in 1968. In 1971, he was sent to the countryside of Shandong province, and became a teacher. In 1972, he was allowed to return to Beijing, and he got a job as a working in a local factory. He met Li Yinhe in 1977, who was working as an editor for "Guangming Daily", and she later became his wife. He was accepted by Renmin University of China in 1978 where he studied economics and trade and got his Bachelor's Degree. He received his Master's Degree at the University of Pittsburgh in 1988. After he returned to China, he began to teach at Peking University and Renmin University of China. He quit his job as a college lecturer in 1992, and became a freelance writer. On April 11, 1997 he died suddenly of heart disease at his apartment.
The language is easy, without arcane chengyus, and consequently it's good reading material for learners of Chinese like me. The content is basically sex, sex and more sex. Full gratification of one's urges in the lush natural setting of Yunnan, that's why it's called the Golden Age. So much undisguised sex is certainly surprising, if not revolutionary, in the general prudery of mainland China. But among the books about the Cultural Revolution – or rather about the intellectual hooligans (流氓), the sent-down students of this period –, I preferred 棋王 by 阿城 or 男人的一半是女人 by 张贤亮.