Christopher K. Tong is a China expert, open-source researcher, and tenured professor at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County. Previously, he was a postdoctoral fellow in East Asian studies at Washington University in St. Louis. He received his Bachelor of Science from Stanford University and PhD from the University of California, Davis.
Dr. Tong researches Chinese culture, politics, science, and technology. His upcoming book from Oxford University Press discusses the emergence of modern science and ecological consciousness in Chinese and Western societies. He has been recognized as a Fulbright Scholar (2018-19), a Marjorie Harding Memorial Fellow by the Thoreau Society (2020-21), a China Studies Fellow by the American Council of Learned Societies (2021-22), and a William S. Willis Jr. Fellow by the American Philosophical Society (2023-24). His writing for a general audience has been syndicated by media outlets such as The Conversation, Associated Press, MSN, Yahoo News, Houston Chronicle, San Francisco Chronicle, and Seattle Post-Intelligencer.
As an enthusiast for languages and cultures, Dr. Tong speaks English, Mandarin Chinese (ILR 4+), Cantonese, and German (DLPT 3R) and has reading knowledge of French and Japanese. In addition to research and teaching, Dr. Tong volunteers for the National Language Service Corps and helps coordinate Chinese language teaching in the Department of Modern Languages, Linguistics & Intercultural Communication as well as the Asian Studies Program.
In this story in UMBC Magazine, Dr. Tong shares his Fulbright experience in the People’s Republic of China with Catalina Sofia Dansberger Duque and talks about his personal connections to research.