I am Chao Wang (Alec), currently a Postdoctoral Teaching Fellow at Schwarzman College, Tsinghua University. Before joining Schwarzman, I was a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Chicago where I also received my Ph.D. in History.

I am a social historian of twentieth-century China and a scholar of disability and human rights. My work in general examines changing practices and meanings of disability in China with an emphasis on the everyday experiences of blind communities. I am particularly interested in exploring questions such as how bodily differences shape community belonging and justifies socioeconomic rights for the disabled, as well as how modern perceptions of disability as lacking social utility (i.e. canfei) in terms of productive labor and literacy in turn impact social policies and institutions that attempt to rehabilitate people with impairments.