Han Shiang-ning was born in Chongqing, Sichuan in 1939 and was a previous resident of Xiangtan in Hunan, China. He graduated from the art department of Taiwan Normal University in 1960 and joined the Fifth Moon Group. In 1961, one of his works was selected for the 6th Sao Paulo Biennial Exhibition in Brazil. Han moved to New York in 1967. His work has been featured in "Bicentennial: Artist-Immigrants of American, 1876–1976". He also taught at the Art Institute of New York University and the Art Institute of Chicago. In 1967, he began experimenting with spray painting, and his works in this medium include the Extreme Light series. In 1972, he turned his attention to industrial sceneries. His SoHo series of paintings from 1974 depict New York SoHo district buildings of from afar. In 1977, he began featuring people, in paintings such as Music at the Washington Square. By 1983, he had stopped working in spray paint and adopted watercolor paint and ink splotches on watercolor paper. In 1987, he started painting subjects from China for the first time and began producing faux Song Dynasty works in 1991 with such works as Fan Kuan Mountains and Streams and Guo Xi Early Spring. In 1993, he used digital techniques in such works as Karaoke. Han Shiang-ning's work encompasses the pointillism and photo realism of the 1970s to the computer generated works of the 1990s, and bustling New York City scenes to tranquil Huangshan Mountain landscapes. Each work bursts with energy, rhythm and characteristic style. Han Shiang-ning's photo-realist style is unique amongst Asian-American artists.

Han Shiang-ning, who moved to the US in the 1970s, liked to capture scenes around New York with a camera, photographing buildings, factories, bridges and pedestrians, which he would reproduce in his works in a very objective manner, without any concession to his own subjective view point, save for a pointillist technique using a spray gun. The scenes depicted in his paintings appear covered by a layer of film, which makes the scenes appear hazy, creating an eerie feeling of alienation.

Han Shiang-ning was active in the modern art movement in Taiwan in the 1950s as a member of the Fifth Moon Group. He also participated in international exhibitions. Influenced by the avant-garde movement, he worked mainly in an abstract style in his early years. In 1967, he moved to the US and came into contact with new painting techniques. He started using a spray gun and capturing scenes with a camera. While working with a spray gun, he found that different arrangements of colored dots produced an effect similar to Seurat's pointillist technique, which led to his series After Seurat. Making use of various techniques, Han Hsiang-ning captured the many diverse sides of the city in his unique style. He produced a series of realist works of cityscapes. His style became more realist and his main subjects were scenes from New York City. His series including Extreme Light New York Cityscapes, Industrial Landscapes and SoHo depicted various views of the city and street scenes.