Wang Gungwu

Wang Gungwu
Wang Gungwu speaking at an event in 2010
Born	(1930-10-09) 9 October 1930 (age 86) Surabaya, Dutch East Indies (now Indonesia)
Institutions	University of Malaya Australian National University University of Hong Kong National University of Singapore
Alma mater	University of Malaya School of Oriental and African Studies
Doctoral advisor	Denis C. Twitchett
Doctoral students	James K. Chin, Antonia Finnane, John Fitzgerald, Huang Jianli, Lee Guan Kin, Ng Chin-Keong, Billy K. L. So
Known for	Vice-Chancellor of the University of Hong Kong, University Professor of the National University of Singapore, Doyen of Overseas Chinese historical scholarship

Wang Gungwu (王赓武; 王賡武; Wáng Gēngwǔ; born 9 October 1930), CBE, is an Australian historian of overseas Chinese descent. He has studied and written about the Chinese diaspora, but he has objected to the use of the word diaspora to describe the migration of Chinese from China because both it mistakenly implies that all overseas Chinese are the same and has been used to perpetuate fears of a "Chinese threat", under the control of the Chinese government. An expert on the Chinese tianxia ("all under heaven") concept, he was the first to suggest its application to the contemporary world as an American Tianxia.

Wang was born in Surabaya, Indonesia and grew up in Ipoh, Malaysia. He completed his secondary education in , an English medium school in Ipoh.

Wang studied history in the University of Malaya, where he received his bachelor's and master's degrees. He holds a PhD from the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London (1957) for his thesis The structure of power in North China during the Five Dynasties. He taught at the University of Malaya (in both Singapore and Kuala Lumpur) and went to Canberra in 1968 to become Professor of Far Eastern History in the Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies (RSPAS) at the Australian National University. Before going to Canberra, he was one of the founders of the Malaysian political party Gerakan even though he was not personally involved in the party's activities. He was Vice-Chancellor of the University of Hong Kong from 1986 to 1995. In 2007, Wang became the third person to be named University Professor by the National University of Singapore.