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Great Lives from History: American Heroes, 2nd Edition

Huping Ling

by Lisong Liu

Writer, scholar, and educator

Born: 1956; Taiyuan, Shanxi Province, China

Birth name: Linghu Ping

Areas of achievement: Literature, education, research

Huping Ling is a leading scholar on Chinese American women’s history and Asian American community studies. As an internationally renowned historian and prolific writer, Ling’s scholarly influence and public service span the Pacific and represent the contributions of post-1965 Asian professional migrants to American culture and society.

Early Life

Ling was born in 1956 into a well-educated family in Taiyuan, the capital city of Shanxi province in China. Her father, Linghu Pu, participated in the national movement of resistance against Japan’s invasion and became a high-ranking nationalist government official at Shanxi province after 1945. Ling’s mother, Ma Huiyuan, was versed in literature and music; she came from a well-established family in Taiyuan and her own mother was among the earliest Chinese women to receive modern education. After the communist takeover of mainland China in 1949, Ling’s family was under constant scrutiny and endured economic hardship. At the age of three, Ling was sent to a boarding school where she learned self-discipline and independence. Despite her family background, Ling’s diligence and talent earned her respect from her peers and teachers. She entered college in 1977, the first year of the restoration of the college entrance examination after the Cultural Revolution, and started publishing scholarly articles on President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s foreign policies when she was a junior. After graduating top in her department, Ling was appointed as an assistant professor of history by Shanxi University while she continued her research on American history. Ling was selected as a visiting scholar at Georgetown University in 1985. She went on to earn her master’s degree at the University of Oregon in 1987 and her doctorate at Miami University in 1991. She began teaching history at Truman State University in 1991.

Huping Ling (Wikimedia Commons)

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“I noted that there is a severe under-representation of Asian Americans in the Midwest, and that Asian American studies have traditional been coast-centered. To try to fill the void, I have devoted much of my time and energy to research on Asian Americans in the Midwest. I interviewed more than 200 Asian Americans in the region, from both small towns and metropolises such as St. Louis.”

Life’s Work

Ling published Surviving on the Gold Mountain: A History ofChinese American Women and Their Lives in 1998. It is considered the first comprehensive history of Chinese American women. It revises the conventional characterization of Chinese American history and compares Chinese women with women of other immigrant groups. Her book Chinese in St. Louis: From Enclave to Cultural Community (2004) develops a new theoretical model of “cultural community” that defines immigrant communities based on common cultural practices and beliefs rather than physical concentrations or territorial boundaries.

Her book Chinese Chicago: Race, Transnational Migration, and Community since 1870 (2012) has been praised for its insight into the links between local and global communities. Using transnational, comparative, and interdisciplinary frameworks, Ling extended her research interests to Asian American communities. She has also authored Voices of the Heart:Asian American Women on Immigration, Work, and Family (2007) and edited books that cover a wide variety of Asian American ethnic groups (including understudied groups such as Burmese, Hmong, Indonesians, Kashmiri, Laotians, Mong, Romani, Thai, and Tibetans). Examples include Emerging Voices: Experiences of Underrepresented Asian Americans (2008), Asian America: Forming New Communities, Expanding Boundaries (2009), and Asian American History and Culture: An Encyclopedia (2010). By early 2012, Ling had published eleven books and over one hundred articles and reviews. In recognition of her significant contributions to the field, she was elected Executive Editor of the Journal ofAsian American Studies in 2008.

Ling founded the Asian studies minor program at Truman State University in 2001–one of the first programs in the United States to offer an undergraduate degree in Asian and Asian American studies. She was the chair of the history department from 2004 to 2006 and was recommended for the position of provost and vice president for academic affairs at the university in 2010.

Ling’s scholarly influence extends beyond the United States. The Chinese version of her book on Chinese American women’s history–Jinshan Yao: A History of Chinese American Women–won the Ford Foundation Award in 1998 and is used as a textbook for graduate programs in American studies across China. The book Ping Piao Mei Guo: New Immigrants in America (2003) was a nonfiction best seller in China. Ling has lectured widely in Asia and has been a visiting professor at Chinese universities. She has also served as a consultant to the Women Writers Association in Shanxi province and to the Overseas Chinese Affairs Office of Guangdong Provincial Government.

Significance

As the first foreign-born and first female editor of the Journal ofAsian American Studies, Ling represents the contributions of foreign-born scholars to the field and is thus able to enhance dialogues with Asian Americanists and American scholars. In that sense, she has contributed significantly to Asian American studies as an expanding and multicultural collaborative enterprise. Ling’s international career also symbolizes the burgeoning cultural, economic, and social exchanges across the Pacific at the turn of the twenty-first century and highlights the active role of Asian American scholars in strengthening and expanding the discussions of migration, gender, race, ethnicity, community, and identity beyond national boundaries.

Further Reading

1 

Han, Jeff. “Professor Linghu Ping Chronicles Chinese American Histories.” The World Journal (Shijie Ribao) 2 Feb. 2012: A9–11. Print. An interview on Ling’s scholarly contributions.

2 

Ling, Huping. Chinese Chicago: Race, Transnational Migration, and Community Since 1870. Stanford: Stanford UP, 2012. Print. A comprehensive and comparative history of Chinese Chicago.

3 

---. Chinese St. Louis: From Enclave to Cultural Community. Philadelphia: Temple UP, 2004. Print. Detailed study of the Chinese community in St. Louis, Missouri.

4 

---. Ping Piao Mei Guo: New Immigrants in America. Shanxi, China: Beiyue Literature and Art, 2003. Print. An autobiography of family history and a transnational journey.

5 

---. Surviving on the Gold Mountain: A History ofChinese American Women and Their Lives. Albany: State U of NY P, 1998. Print. A comprehensive study of Chinese American women’s history.

Citation Types

Type
Format
MLA 9th
Liu, Lisong. "Huping Ling." Great Lives from History: American Heroes, 2nd Edition, edited by D. Alan Dean, Salem Press, 2019. Salem Online, online.salempress.com/articleDetails.do?articleName=AmHero_0060.
APA 7th
Liu, L. (2019). Huping Ling. In D. Alan Dean (Ed.), Great Lives from History: American Heroes, 2nd Edition. Salem Press. online.salempress.com.
CMOS 17th
Liu, Lisong. "Huping Ling." Edited by D. Alan Dean. Great Lives from History: American Heroes, 2nd Edition. Hackensack: Salem Press, 2019. Accessed October 22, 2025. online.salempress.com.