Shuang Wen

Shuang Wen (or 温爽 in Chinese) is a historian of modern China and the Arab world. Prior to joining NYU Shanghai, Professor Wen held fellowships at the National University of Singapore and New York University Abu Dhabi. As a native Mandarin speaker, she received intensive Arabic-language training from the American University in Cairo, University of Damascus, Georgetown University, and Middlebury College.

Her research has been funded by the American Historical Association, Association for Asian Studies, Qatar Foundation, Chiang Ching-kuo Foundation for International Scholarly Exchange, and German Ministry of Education and Research, and has been featured by the American Historical Association in “Member Spotlight.” Her forthcoming first monograph investigates the transformative processes of Arab-Chinese entanglements in the age of global empires from the mid-nineteenth century to the end of World War II.

Before switching her career to academia, Shuang was a broadcast journalist for Phoenix Satellite Television InfoNews Channel in Hong Kong (香港鳳凰衛視資訊台, 2003–2006), covering major breaking news events from the Middle East, and English-Mandarin-Cantonese simultaneous interpreter for live news coverage.

Select Publications

• “A Short History of Modern Arab Knowledge Production on China,” in Islam, Revival, and Reform: Redefining Tradition for the Twenty-First Century, edited by Natana J. DeLong-Bas, University of Syracuse Press, 2022, chapter 9.
• “From Manchuria to Egypt: Soybean’s Global Migration and Transformation in the Twentieth Century,” Asian Journal of Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies 13 (June 2019): 176-194.
• “Two Sides of the Story: How Historians and Journalists Can Work Together,” featured essay for Perspectives on History 53 (October 2015), published by the American Historical Association, USA
• “The Characters of Egypt Reflected by Chinese Arabist Xue Qingguo” (“as-Shakhṣiyyah al-Miṣriyyah fi mir’āh mustaʿarab Ṣini biqalami Bassam Xue Qingguo” الشخصية المصرية في مرآة مستعرب صيني بقلم بسام شوي تشينغ قوه), in special issue on China-Egypt relations, Egyptian Gazette, May 14, 2015, Cairo, Egypt
• “Muslim Activist Encounters in Meiji Japan,” in special issue on “China in the Middle East,” Middle East Report 44, No. 270 (Spring 2014), published by Middle East Research and Information Project, USA

Education

• PhD, Transregional History (modern Middle East and East Asia)
  Georgetown University, USA
• MA, Middle East Studies and Arabic
  American University in Cairo, Egypt
• MA, English-Chinese Simultaneous Interpretation and Translation
  Beijing Foreign Studies University, China
• BA, English Language, Literature, and Culture
  University of International Relations, China