Pan was born in
Rui'an,
Zhejiang in 1943. After graduating from high school, he was unable to attend college because of his family background and worked as a labourer in several
Wenzhou factories. After the end of the
Cultural Revolution, he tested into the graduate program of
Fudan University in 1979, and earned his master's degree in Chinese language in 1982. He subsequently taught at
Wenzhou Normal College before becoming a professor at
Shanghai Normal University. He also taught as a visiting professor at the
University of California, Berkeley, the
University of Wisconsin, the
University of Oslo, the
City University of Hong Kong, the
Chinese University of Hong Kong, and the
National Tsing Hua University. In the Spring of 2005, Wuyun was a Fellow at the
Swedish Collegium for Advanced Study in
Uppsala,
Sweden. ==Research areas==