Kuo Jen was born in 1926 in Henan, China, and studied at the National Beiping Art School (now the Central Academy of Fine Arts). He was a student of the renowned Chinese modern painter Xu Beihong. In 1949, due to the Chinese Civil War, he came to Taiwan with the retreat of the Nationalist government.
Against Again Troupe was founded in 2002 in Taiwan by a group of theatre practitioners coming from diverse artistic backgrounds. Its earlier productions focused on environmental theater, performance poetry, and multi-media theater, attempting to examine the human condition in the age of globalization.