Harriet Wong

Harriet Wong is program coordinator at Harvard’s Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies where she oversees the Center’s affiliates and grants programs. Originally from the UK, she has a long-standing interest in China since serving as a teacher in Nanjing in the early nineties. After graduating from Cambridge University with a BA in Geography she entered the Regional Studies East Asia program and delved into intensive Chinese and a broad range of classes. With some RSEA classmates she helped develop ideas for a student-led society for academic engagement with RSEA alumni, which later grew into the Harvard East Asia Society (HEAS). Harriet completed her master’s degree in 1997 with a focus on China’s socio-economic development and international relations. Her first job after RSEA was at Harvard’s Kennedy School, helping to arrange conferences for Chinese and US military officers and defense experts, and executive programs for Hong Kong civil servants (it was 1997-98). After a stint in London doing research at Chatham House, she returned to the US for family and career. She enjoyed program management roles for several local and international non-profit organizations including WorldTeach and Mass Audubon, in amongst parenting. Coming almost full circle, Harriet worked as staff assistant to the RSEA and Inner Asian and Altaic Studies programs from 2017-2021, where she enjoyed working with Rosie and  seeing the annual HEAS conferences still going strong, even through the pandemic. In her current role at the Fairbank Center she continues to support scholars of Chinese studies, including students in the RSEA program.