Wu was born in south-western China’s Yunnan province in 1956. After graduating from high school in 1974, Wu was send to the countryside, where he worked as farmer for four year. Between 1978 and 1982, he studied Chinese Literature in Yunnan University. After the University, Wu worked as a teach at a junior high school for three years, and later, he worked in the television as a journalist for four years. Wu left the television, moved to Beijing in 1988 to be an independent documentary filmmaker, freelance writer and creator and producer of dance/theater.

Wu has completed documentaries: Bumming in Beijing (1990), 1966, My Time in the Red Guards (1993), Jiang Hu: Life on the Road (1999), Fuck Cinema (2005), Bare Your Staff (2010), Treating (2010), Because of Hunger (2013), Investigating My Father (2016), Autobiography: Pass Through (2017), Autobiography: Struggle (2018) Autobiography: Fear (2019), Riding Through (2020), and has screened in many film festivals in the world. Wu also has created some short video, which like Diary: Snow, 21 Nov, 1998 (1999), Public Space (2000), Search: Hamlet in China (2002).

Wu had been created in theater, which like Treating (2009), Memory: Hunger (2010), Investigating My Father (2013) and Reading Hunger (2016), Reading Father (2019)

Also Wu had some no-fiction books published (Bumming in Beijing, 1966, Revolution Scene, Report on Jianghu)

In 2005, Wu found the Village Documentary Project, and in 2010, found the Folk Memory Project .