Her area of expertise is late imperial/early modern (16th–19th century) Chinese literature, with a focus on sensory writing and literati culture. She is especially interested in the representation of the senses in minor literary genres such as tanci (plucking rhymes) fictions, xiaopin (vignette) essays, and yiyu (reminiscent words) memoirs. Her other research interests include gender studies, female education, material culture, and the history of emotion. Her teaching interests at Duke Kunshan include Chinese literature and culture, classical Chinese, Chinese theater, Chinese-English translation, and Suzhou local history and culture.

She has published papers in leading academic journals, including CHINOPERL: Journal of Chinese Oral and Performing Literature. She is currently completing her book manuscript, titled “Licking the Eyes: Writing the Senses in Early Modern China,” which demonstrates how writing about the so-called “lower” senses of smell, taste, and touch became an accessible and irreplaceable medium through which Chinese literati authors negotiated their identity, and argues for a mutually nourishing cycle between sensing and writing in a rapidly changing early modern world.

Wenting holds a B.A. in Chinese Language and Literature from Sun Yat-sen University, an M.A. in Chinese Literature from National Taiwan University, and a Ph.D. in Chinese from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Before joining Duke Kunshan, she was a visiting Chinese language instructor at Randolph College.