The Next Big Thing: Hanjing Wang

Hanjing Wang, a senior at Shanghai American School on the Puxi campus, is passionate about many things – debate, volleyball, service clubs, and creative writing, to name a few. And come fall, she is packing all that passion and heading to Cambridge, MA where she will be studying at Harvard University. 

Where are you headed to in the fall and what do you plan to study?

I'll be attending Harvard University this fall. We decide what our major will be in our second year, but I’m interested in studying comparative literature there. 

How did you develop a passion for creative writing?

In middle school at SAS, I found myself writing about a lot of the experiences that my family had and using creative writing as a tool for me to express myself. I was also doing debate at the time, where I was exposed to a lot of different issues of social discourse, and I found myself wanting to express my opinion on those issues. I had this moment then where I combined my passion for writing and my passion for activism and advocacy together. Throughout high school, I experimented with poetry and fiction, but I ultimately stuck with short story writing because I found that it was the best medium for me to do a lot of creative experimenting, but also develop a coherent story that has a central theme.

What are you looking forward to about studying at Harvard?

Harvard has this super long catalog of thousands of classes, and I am very excited to take full advantage of it and go off on different tangents to see where my interests lie in my first year. But also, I'm very excited to explore the city of Cambridge and Boston. I think I probably won't get that many chances later in life to just immerse myself in such a brand-new city. I can’t wait to go on museum excursions on the weekend, meet new people, and try out different restaurants.

Best of luck next year, Hanjing. We can’t wait to read more of your writing from your time at Harvard!