Born in Guizhou, one of the most remote and impoverished provinces of China, amidst the tumult of 1989, Qing Wang (王磬) was fired from childhood by the desire to see “the other side of the mountain”. Arriving in Beijing on a coveted scholarship to attend the illustrious Peking University, Qing witnessed first hand what has often been called modern China’s “coming out party”, the Olympics of 2008. Ever since, her mission has been to help China understand the world, and the world China.
Today, Qing is a multi-award winning independent journalist, podcaster and social media influencer. For the last ten years she has criss-crossed Europe, covering global political and economic stories. Breaking with the stayed conventions of international news coverage in China, Qing is recognized for her distinctive, human-centered and feminist approach.
From 2018 to 2024, Qing worked as the chief international correspondent for Jiemian News, one of China’s largest digital media outlets, Qing led coverage on events like the Russian-Ukraine war, the U.S. election, the Covid-19 pandemic, Brexit, the 2015 European refugee crisis, the COP and Davos summits. Prior to that, Qing spent three years working at Radio Netherlands Worldwide, the former Dutch public broadcaster, where she led a humanitarian project supporting Syrian refugee women residing in Jordan and Lebanon. After that she became an active advocate for universal humanitarian values in China.
Fascinated by the potential of new media, in 2019 Qing co-founded The Weirdo Podcast (不合时宜), a pioneering Chinese language podcast that discusses current affairs with a feminist and progressive angel. With one million subscribers, the show has garnered multiple awards including “the biggest new show” (2020) from Apple Podcast. The show was featured by both The Economist and AFP as a leading example of free thought in China today.
Based in the Netherlands, Qing is an active participant in Chinese debates on social justice, gender inequality and climate. She currently has one million followers on Weibo, China’s equivalent of twitter. Weibo has recognized her influence with multiple awards, including “top 100 young thinkers” and “top young women influencers”.
Today, Qing is sought after as one of China’s best interviewers of the world’s leading thinkers, including Noam Chomsky, Bill Gates, Francis Fukuyama, Svetlana Alexievich and Slavoj Žižek. In an age of decoupling and polarization she remains committed to cultivating the audience of “global Chinese” both inside and outside China.
Qing is also a frequent speaker at various international conferences on topics like China, media, youth and feminism. In 2019, she was invited as a media leader to speak in the World Economic Forum's Global Future Council in Dubai. In 2023, she was awarded a fellowship for media excellence for the Chinese University of Hong Kong, where she gave workshops on “how to ask good questions”.
Qing received her bachelor degree from Peking University, majoring in literature and minor in economics, graduating with distinction. She also holds a master's degree from Leiden University and was awarded the Huygens Scholarship from the Dutch government.
Qing speaks Mandarin (native), Guizhou Dialect, English (bilingual proficiency), and a bit of Dutch (elementary proficiency). She is a huge fan of spicy food.