Her research focuses on economic anthropology and how home ownership and property relations implicate and structure state power, capitalism and everyday life in post-socialist China, as well as among overseas Chinese. Her teaching interests at Duke Kunshan include cultures and movements, global China studies, urban studies and cultural anthropology.
Wang has a B.A. in economics and in Chinese and media studies from Beijing Normal University and an M.A. and Ph.D. in anthropology from Brandeis University.