Born in Anhui, Wang was popular in the 1990s for his clean reputation and split with the Kuomintang to help found the New Party.
In 2001, the three parties of the pan-Blue coalition, the KMT, the PFP, and the New Party agreed to field only one candidate for Taipei County magistrate in 2001 based on which party could field the most popular candidate in polls. Despite the unified ticket and a poll predicting him winning, Wang was lost to Su Tseng-chang. He also participated in 1998 Taipei City mayoral race. Wang is married to Su Fa-jau (蘇法昭).
Because the second character of his given name, 煊, is uncommon, it is often written as 宣, sometimes as [火宣].
See also: Politics of Taiwan