Professor Pai is the son of the prominent military general Pai Chung-hsi (Bai Chongxi). He graduated from Taiwan National University in 1961, and was a founder of the literary journal Hsien-tai wen-hsüeh (Modern Literature), which launched the modern literary movement in Taiwan that subsequently had a great impact on both Hong Kong and China. He received a Masters of Fine Arts, with a specialization in Creative Writing, from the famed Writer’s Workshop at the University of Iowa in 1965. In the same year he joined the faculty at UCSB, where he remained active as teacher, creative writer, and scholar until his retirement in 1994.

Professor Pai is recognized as one of the most important modem Chinese fiction writers. His best known works include Taipei People, Crystal Boys, New Yorkers; and his stage play Wandering in the Garden, Waking from a Dream. His fiction explores problems of Chinese identity, emigration and nostalgia for the past, and sexuality, set against the backdrop of the great national dramas and tragedies that mark Chinese history of the twentieth century.