Sun Jiaqin was born in 1930 in Dalian and was the youngest son of Sun Chuanfang. He learnt painting from his mother at an early age and followed Chen Linzhai before entering Taiwan. After his arrival in Taiwan, he was graduated at the Faculty of Arts at the National Taiwan Normal University, and took educator roles as a tutor and lecturer. During this period, he followed Huang Chun-Pi and Pu Hsinyu to refine his artistic skills. In 1964, he came to Brazil and became a student of Zhang Daqian. He was the last student of the artist. He practised 3 years, primarily on Flower-and-Bird paintings on Pocai landscape paintings, hence this became his unique style. He stayed in Sao Paulo for 2 decades as a founding professor of the University of Sao Paulo. He returned to Taiwan in 1992 and became a professor for the National Taiwan Normal University and the Chinese Culture University.