Huping Ling


Huping Ling is a Chinese American academic. She is a professor of history and past department chair at Truman State University in Kirksville, Missouri, where she founded the Asian studies program. She is the recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Award 2024 by the Association for Asian American Studies. She is the Visiting Fellow of the Hoover Institution at Stanford University, the Changjiang Scholar Chair Professor of the Chinese Ministry of Education, Distinguished Honorary Professor at Lishui University, and a Visiting Professor of the Institute of Overseas Chinese Studies at Jinan University. She is the funding and inaugural book series editor Asian American Studies Today for Rutgers University Press, on the Editorial Board of Overseas Chinese History Study, the Overseas Chinese History Research Institution, Beijing, China, and served as the Executive Editor-in-Chief for the Journal of Asian American Studies. She is also on the Board of Directors of the Chinese Historical Society of Overseas Chinese Studies, the editorial board of Overseas Chinese History Studies, and serves as a consultant to the Overseas Chinese Affairs Office of Guangdong Provincial Government.
Her research focuses on Asian American studies, including immigration and ethnicity, assimilation and adaptation, family and marriage, feminism, employment patterns, and community structures. A Ford Foundation prize-winning author, she has published 35 books and more than 200 articles on Asian American studies, including immigration and ethnicity, assimilation and adaptation, transnationalism, family and marriage, employment patterns, and community structures.

Education and career

Ling began her career in teaching as a high school teacher in Taiyuan, Shanxi, China, from 1974 through 1978. In 1982, she graduated from Taiyuan's Shanxi University first in her class with a bachelor's degree in history. From 1982-85, she worked as an assistant professor of history at Shanxi University. In 1985, she was a visiting scholar at the history department at Georgetown University. She earned her master's in 1987 at the University of Oregon, and completed her Ph.D at Miami University.
She began teaching as an assistant professor of history at Truman State University from 1991-1995. In 1996, she became associate professor of history and full professor in 2004.
She is a visiting professor with the Institute of Overseas Chinese Studies at Jinan University in Guangzhou, China. She is the Changjiang Scholar Chair Professor by the Chinese Ministry of Education at Wuhan Theoretical Research Center of Overseas Chinese Affairs Office of the State Council and China Central Normal University in Wuhan.
She also serves as:
She is the inaugural editor of the Rutgers University Press book series Asian American Studies Today. She has been a National Reviewer for The Choice, The Journal of Urban History, International Migration Review, The Journal of American Ethnic History, The Journal of American History for the Organization of American Historians, The Journal of the History of Sexuality for the University of Chicago Press, book manuscripts for the University of Hawaii Press, and textbooks by Prentice Hall. In 2004, she served on the Book Award Committee for the 46th Missouri Conference on History.

Selected Lectures/Interviews

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    Books and articles

She has published 35 books and more than 200 articles on Asian American studies, including immigration and ethnicity, assimilation and adaptation, transnationalism, family and marriage, employment patterns, and community structures.
These works include:
Selected Books
Selected Articles
  • “The Overseas Chinese Community Organizations: Zhonghua Huiguan and On Leong, 1850s-1960s.” International Journal of Diasporic Chinese Studies. Vol., No. : 1-20.
  • “The 1965 Immigration and Nationality Act and the Formation of Cultural Community in St. Louis, Missouri.” Missouri Historical Review.
  • “New Millennial Study Abroad Wave: An Analysis and Evaluation.” Shenzheng University Journal of Social Sciences Vol. 36, No. 1 : 1-9.
  • “The Chinese American Studies: Theories, Approaches, Challenges and Potentials.” International Journal of Diasporic Chinese Studies. Vol. 10, No.1 : 81-110.
  • “Taishan Widow” and “American Concubine”: Marriage Patterns of the Early Chinese Immigrants in the U.S., 1880s-1940s.” Guangdong Qiangxiang Culture Research Center, Wuyi University, Guangdong, China, December 8, 2018.
  • “Overseas Chinese Society.” Chinese American History Studies. December 1, 2017 Issue.
  • “Chinese Chicago.” Chinese American History Studies. December 1, 2017 Issue.
  • “A History of the Chinese Female Students in the U.S.” In New Perspectives on the History of Women's Education in the United States. ed. Margaret Nash. Palgrave Press, 2017, pages 93-116.
  • Lead Article, “Chinese Chicago: Transnational Migration and Entrepreneurship, 1870s-1930s.” Overseas Chinese History Studies No. 3 : 1-18.
  • Lead Article, “Rise of China and Its Meaning to Asian Americans.” American Review of China Studies Vol. 14, No. 1 : 1-23.
  • “The New Trends in American Chinatowns: The Case of Chinese in Chicago.” In Chinatown around the World: Gilded Ghettos, Ethnopolis, and Cultural Diaspora, edited by Bernard Wong and Chee-Beng Tan. Leiden: Brill, 2013. Pages 55-94.
  • “Negotiating Transnational Migration: Marriage and Changing Gender Roles among the Chinese Diaspora.” In Routledge Handbook of the Chinese Diaspora, edited by Chee-Beng Tan, London and New York: Routledge, 2013. Pages 227-246.
  • "Chinese Chicago: Transnational Migration and Community, 1945-2010s." In Chinatown around the World, edited by Chee-Beng Tan and Bernard Wong, 2012.
  • "Negotiating Migration: Marriage and Changing Gender Roles among the Chinese Diaspora," In Handbook of the Chinese Diaspora, edited by Chee-Beng Tan, Routledge, 2012.
  • "Asian Americans in Missouri." In Asian America: A State by State Historical Encyclopedia, edited by Jun Xing, Greenwood Press, 2012.
  • "The Transnational World of Chinese Entrepreneurs in Chicago, 1870s to 1940s: New Sources and Perspectives on Southern Chinese Emigration." In Frontier History in China, Vol.6, No.3 : 370-406.
  • "The Changing Public Image of Chinese Americans and the Rise of China." In 21st Century International Review, : 10-15.
  • "Chinese-American women," In Women in American History: An Encyclopedia, edited by Hasia R. Diner, Facts on File, 2011.
  • "Chinese Immigrants," In Encyclopedia of the American Immigration, edited by R. Kent Rasmussen, Salem Press, 2010.
  • "Chinese Chicago: Transnational Migration and Businesses, 1890s-1930s." In Journal of Chinese Overseas Vol. 6 : 250-285.
  • “The Changing Public Image of Chinese Americans and the Rise of China.” Urban China No. 23 : 75-79.
  • “New Perspectives on Chinese American Studies—Cultural Community Theory.” Overseas Chinese History Studies No.1 : 25-31.
  • “Reconceptualizing Chinese American Community in St. Louis: From Chinatown to Cultural Community.” Journal of American Ethnic History Vol. 24, No. 2 : 65-101. Winner of the Best Article Award, 48th Annual Missouri Conference on History 2006.
  • “Growing up in ‘Hop Alley:’ The Chinese American Youth in St. Louis during the Early-Twentieth Century.” In Asian American Children, ed. Benson Tong, 65-81. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2004.
  • “Governing ‘Hop Alley:’ On Leong Chinese Merchants and Laborers Association, 1906-1966.” Journal of American Ethnic History Vol. 23, No. 2 : 50-84.
  • “The Rise and Fall of the Study in America Movement in Taiwan.” Overseas Chinese History Studies No. 4 : 21-28.
  • “Hop Alley: Myth and Reality of the St. Louis Chinatown, 1860s-1930s.” Journal of Urban History Vol. 28, No.2 : 184-219.
  • “Historiography and Research Methodologies of Chinese American Women.” Research on Women in Modern Chinese History No. 9 : 235-253.
  • “Family and Marriage of Late-Nineteenth and Early-Twentieth Century Chinese Immigrant Women.” Journal of American Ethnic History Vol. 19, No. 2 : 43-63.
  • “A History of Chinese Female Students in the United States, 1880s-1990s.” Journal of American Ethnic History Vol.16, No.3 : 81-109.
  • “Sze-Kew Dun, A Chinese-American Woman in Kirksville.” Missouri Historical Review Vol. XCI : 35-51.
  • “Chinese Merchant Wives in the United States: 1840-1945.” In Chinese Historical Society of Southern California and UCLA Asian American Studies Center, Origins and Destinations, 1994, 79-92.
  • “Surviving on the Gold Mountain: A Review of Sources about Chinese American Women.” The History Teacher Vol. 26, No. 4, August : 459-470.

    Honors

  • 1999: Ford Foundation Book Award.
  • 2004: Golden Apple Award from the Order of Omega and Truman State University's Greek Community.
  • 2006: Walker and Doris Allen Fellowship award for faculty excellence, with a prize of $10,000. She was also a finalist for the same award for the previous year.
  • 2006 Best Article Award at Missouri Conference on History.
  • 2010: Booklist/Reference Books Bulletin Editors' Choice Award.
  • 2012-2015: Changjiang Scholar Chair Professor by the Chinese Ministry of Education.
  • 2016, 2017-2018: Visiting Fellow of the Hoover Institution at Stanford University.
  • 2024: Lifetime Achievement Award of the Association for Asian American Studies.
  • One of 145 Eminent Scholars in the United States by the National Museum of the American People.
She has also been a semi-finalist several times for Truman's Educator of the Year award

Public appearances

Ling has made many public appearances. She has been featured in PBS, Top China, The World Journal, Chicago Daily Herald, Dallas Morning News, West End Word, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, St. Louis Chinese American News, St. Louis Chinese Journal, the Overseas Chinese World, River Front Times, among others, and appeared at “Charles Brennan Show” KMOX 1120, “Voice of St. Louis”, KWMU 90.7 “St. Louis on the Air”, among others. She has also been included in many books/encyclopedias on famous Chinese Americans and authors. She is frequently invited to lecture on Asian cultures and Asian American experiences at conferences, universities, schools, libraries, government and private agencies, and community organizations, nationally and internationally.