Edward Wong
Encyclopedia
Edward Wong is an American
journalist and a foreign correspondent for The New York Times
. Wong served as one of the Times' main correspondents covering the Iraq War from November 2003 through June 2007. He moved to the paper's Beijing bureau after a ten-month sabbatical where he spent time at Middlebury College and the International Chinese Language Program (ICLP)
in Taiwan improving his Mandarin. Wong reports on China's politics, economy, military, foreign policy and culture. He has covered signature events of recent years in China, including the Sichuan earthquake, the Beijing Olympics and unrest in Tibet
and Xinjiang
. He has also reported from Afghanistan
, Tajikistan
, North Korea
, Mongolia
, India
, Vietnam
, Indonesia
and Taiwan
. He occasionally writes travel stories about trekking in the mountains of Central and South Asia.
Wong graduated from the University of Virginia
in 1994 with a B.A. in English. In 1999, he earned dual Master's degrees in journalism and international studies at the University of California, Berkeley
.
Wong's first newspaper job was at The Potomac Gazette in Potomac, MD. While attending graduate school at Berkeley, he wrote freelance stories for The Los Angeles Times, The San Francisco Chronicle, The San Jose Mercury News, Wired magazine and The Far Eastern Economic Review. Wong worked as an intern at The Associated Press in 1997. He started out at The New York Times as an intern in 1998 and went on to report for the metro, sports, business and foreign desks.
Wong received the 2005 Livingston Award for International Reporting for his Iraq coverage. He was among a group of reporters from the Times' Baghdad bureau named as finalists for the 2008 Pulitzer Prize in International Reporting. He shared a 2010 Feature Writing prize from the Society of Publishers in Asia for the Times' 10-part Uneasy Engagement series, about China's growing influence in the world.
An essay by Wong was published in Travelers' Tales: Tibet, an anthology of travel writing on Tibet. Wong appears in Laura Poitras's 2006 documentary about the Iraq War, My Country, My Country
, and in Dexter Filkins's book, The Forever War.
He has appeared on The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer and The Charlie Rose Show, and has been interviewed on National Public Radio programs.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
journalist and a foreign correspondent for The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
. Wong served as one of the Times' main correspondents covering the Iraq War from November 2003 through June 2007. He moved to the paper's Beijing bureau after a ten-month sabbatical where he spent time at Middlebury College and the International Chinese Language Program (ICLP)
International Chinese Language Program
The International Chinese Language Program is one of the world's premier institutions for intensive training in formal Mandarin, Taiwanese, Classical Chinese, and other Chinese languages...
in Taiwan improving his Mandarin. Wong reports on China's politics, economy, military, foreign policy and culture. He has covered signature events of recent years in China, including the Sichuan earthquake, the Beijing Olympics and unrest in Tibet
Tibet
Tibet is a plateau region in Asia, north-east of the Himalayas. It is the traditional homeland of the Tibetan people as well as some other ethnic groups such as Monpas, Qiang, and Lhobas, and is now also inhabited by considerable numbers of Han and Hui people...
and Xinjiang
Xinjiang
Xinjiang is an autonomous region of the People's Republic of China. It is the largest Chinese administrative division and spans over 1.6 million km2...
. He has also reported from Afghanistan
Afghanistan
Afghanistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located in the centre of Asia, forming South Asia, Central Asia and the Middle East. With a population of about 29 million, it has an area of , making it the 42nd most populous and 41st largest nation in the world...
, Tajikistan
Tajikistan
Tajikistan , officially the Republic of Tajikistan , is a mountainous landlocked country in Central Asia. Afghanistan borders it to the south, Uzbekistan to the west, Kyrgyzstan to the north, and China to the east....
, North Korea
North Korea
The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea , , is a country in East Asia, occupying the northern half of the Korean Peninsula. Its capital and largest city is Pyongyang. The Korean Demilitarized Zone serves as the buffer zone between North Korea and South Korea...
, Mongolia
Mongolia
Mongolia is a landlocked country in East and Central Asia. It is bordered by Russia to the north and China to the south, east and west. Although Mongolia does not share a border with Kazakhstan, its western-most point is only from Kazakhstan's eastern tip. Ulan Bator, the capital and largest...
, India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
, Vietnam
Vietnam
Vietnam – sometimes spelled Viet Nam , officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam – is the easternmost country on the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia. It is bordered by China to the north, Laos to the northwest, Cambodia to the southwest, and the South China Sea –...
, Indonesia
Indonesia
Indonesia , officially the Republic of Indonesia , is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania. Indonesia is an archipelago comprising approximately 13,000 islands. It has 33 provinces with over 238 million people, and is the world's fourth most populous country. Indonesia is a republic, with an...
and Taiwan
Taiwan
Taiwan , also known, especially in the past, as Formosa , is the largest island of the same-named island group of East Asia in the western Pacific Ocean and located off the southeastern coast of mainland China. The island forms over 99% of the current territory of the Republic of China following...
. He occasionally writes travel stories about trekking in the mountains of Central and South Asia.
Wong graduated from the University of Virginia
University of Virginia
The University of Virginia is a public research university located in Charlottesville, Virginia, United States, founded by Thomas Jefferson...
in 1994 with a B.A. in English. In 1999, he earned dual Master's degrees in journalism and international studies at the University of California, Berkeley
University of California, Berkeley
The University of California, Berkeley , is a teaching and research university established in 1868 and located in Berkeley, California, USA...
.
Wong's first newspaper job was at The Potomac Gazette in Potomac, MD. While attending graduate school at Berkeley, he wrote freelance stories for The Los Angeles Times, The San Francisco Chronicle, The San Jose Mercury News, Wired magazine and The Far Eastern Economic Review. Wong worked as an intern at The Associated Press in 1997. He started out at The New York Times as an intern in 1998 and went on to report for the metro, sports, business and foreign desks.
Wong received the 2005 Livingston Award for International Reporting for his Iraq coverage. He was among a group of reporters from the Times' Baghdad bureau named as finalists for the 2008 Pulitzer Prize in International Reporting. He shared a 2010 Feature Writing prize from the Society of Publishers in Asia for the Times' 10-part Uneasy Engagement series, about China's growing influence in the world.
An essay by Wong was published in Travelers' Tales: Tibet, an anthology of travel writing on Tibet. Wong appears in Laura Poitras's 2006 documentary about the Iraq War, My Country, My Country
My Country, My Country
My Country, My Country is a 2006 documentary film. Filmmaker Laura Poitras spent over eight months alone in Iraq filming this documentary. The film shows life in Iraq for average Iraqis under U.S. occupation. Poitras focuses primarily on Dr...
, and in Dexter Filkins's book, The Forever War.
He has appeared on The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer and The Charlie Rose Show, and has been interviewed on National Public Radio programs.