John D. Wong’s research focuses on the flow of people, goods, capital, and ideas. With a particular interest in Hong Kong and the Pearl River Delta area/Greater Bay Area, he explores how these flows connect the region to the Chinese political center in the north and its maritime partners in the South China Sea and beyond.

Studying the China trade in the context of early-nineteenth-century global exchange, his first monograph, Global Trade in the Nineteenth Century: The House of Houqua and the Canton System (Cambridge University Press, 2016; Chinese edition HKU Press, 2025), demonstrates how China trade partners sustained their economic exchange on a global scale long before Western imperialism ushered in the era of globalization in a Eurocentric modern world.  In Hong Kong Takes Flight (Harvard, 2022; Chinese edition HKU Press, 2023), John explores the development of the airline industry in Hong Kong after WWII. By not accepting Hong Kong’s development into a regional and global hub as preordained, this study aims to describe globalization and global networks in the making.

His publications have appeared in business history journals such as Business History Review and Enterprise & Society, as well as journals with an area studies focus such as the Journal of Asian Studies, Journal of Southeast Asian Studies, Modern Asian Studies, and Modern China.  John’s research has received funding support, which to date has included Mellon, Luce, Fulbright awards, as well as GRF grants and the Humanities and Social Sciences Prestigious Fellowship from the Hong Kong Research Grants Council.

John serves on the editorial board of Business History and is an editor of the Asian Business Histories series at the Hong Kong University Press.

John received his BA (Hons) in Economics from the University of Chicago, MBA from Stanford University, and PhD in History from Harvard University. Before his academic career, he worked for a number of years in finance and holds the designation of Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA).