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Major: Asian Studies
Profession: Founder of
Hometown: Brookline, Mass.

What are you doing now?

Wang is working toward two Masters degrees from MIT in urban studies and business administration, a unique ‘dual degree’ he’s crafted based on his work building a better cycling community in Beijing by teaching people how to make their own bamboo bicycles—a business he’s still concurrently running.

How did you get there?

Since his first year at Pomona, Wang has “had a passionate interest to understand and impact contemporary culture in China.” He focused his studies at Pomona on the anthropology of sports cultures in China, and was a Fulbright Scholar in Xi'an, China, researching youth culture. Then he worked at a qualitative market research company in Beijing, and finally started his own company, .

While his interest in Chinese culture has never waned, “my journey has been circuitous in that I've jumped between geographies and fields multiple times, always feeling most comfortable being ‘in between.’ I've somehow cobbled together a career that combines anthropology, urban planning, market research, business and China, while dancing between Pomona, Beijing, Xi'an and Boston.”

How did Pomona help prepare you?

Wang cites relationships with two professors: Sam Yamashita and Dru Gladney.

“Sam Yamashita helped me build a foundation of academic rigor throughout my four years at Pomona that has since guided me through all of the challenges I’ve faced since entering the real world,” says Wang. “His classes and guidance have helped me continually question how the world is socially constructed by the people and institutions around me, and this questioning has helped me then deconstruct the world so that change can be made possible.”

Just as importantly, says Wang, Prof. Gladney “is the reason why I have the confidence to actively engage communities in China and then create with them.” Gladney helped Wang apply for a Pacific Basin Institute film grant to make a documentary about street basketball in Beijing. “By the end of the summer, I not only had a documentary I was very proud of, but I had come to understand that learning is best done through daring to engage.”

“That deep lesson has since guided me to do things like start a bamboo bicycle workshop, search out a job as the only foreigner in a market research company, and make documentaries about street culture.”

Wang also cites his experience as a sponsor and then head sponsor at Pomona as deeply influential. “It forced me to consider the diversity of experiences we all come from and the power (and danger) of language in building healthy communities,” says Wang. “Working with my fellow Sponsors and Frank Bedoya, I had the chance to be a leader and experience the immense challenges and responsibilities that come with that. In this way, Pomona gave me a chance to wrestle with difficult social challenges, to get hurt by them, and to grow stronger from them before entering the 'real world.'”

Where do you see yourself in five years?

Wang plans to remain in China, continuing to build Bamboo Bicycles Beijing. “into a platform that empowers Chinese young people to feel confident making not only bikes but all kinds of things that help them realize their ideas and goals.”

Any advice for students?

“If you have an idea, do it. It's really far too easy to get caught up getting advice from people and networking. People will always be able to refer you to other people, and that can quickly suck away all of your time. It's much, much better to fall in love with you idea by bringing it into reality. If you do that, the right people to talk to will come and find you.”