Wang Jianan's wife Cai Xiaoli is from Fujian Province, born of a family of painters. While working for the Shanxi Provincial Song and Dance Theatre, she learned Western painting under Mr Wu Zhide and traditional Chinese portrait painting under Wang Ziwu, before entering the Traditional Chinese Painting Department of the Central Academy of Fine Art in China where she afterwards taught brush painting. After arriving in England in 1989, the artist shed her traditional style and sought a more indepedent style
In 1984, Cai Xiaoli won the excellent painting Prize in Sixth National Fine Arts Exhibition of China and in 1987, the same prize from the National Gallery of China, Beijing. Exhibitions include, Contemporary Chinese Painting Exhibition, Royal Festival Hall, London 1988; One-man show at Art in Action, Oxford 1990; Royal Academy Summer Exhibition, 1991; British Art Fair, Royal Academy of Art, London 1991