Qian Julie Wang

Qian Julie Wang is a Chinese-American writer and civil rights lawyer.

Early life Qian Wang was born in Shijiazhuang, China to academic parents. Wang's father fled China to the United States when she was five; Wang and her mother followed two years later in 1994. After their temporary visas expired, the Wang family remained in the United States as undocumented immigrants in Brooklyn.

Wang's father enrolled her at P.S. 124 in Chinatown, but few of her classmates and teachers spoke Mandarin Chinese, thus isolating her even within a seemingly familiar community. Unable to speak English or Cantonese, Wang was initially placed in a special-needs classroom, but was returned to mainstream instruction after she was observed teaching herself to read English through picture books. Wang returned to the United States to attend Swarthmore College.

Wang declined Robins Kaplan's offer of partnership and currently serves as managing director/partner of Gottlieb & Wang LLP, a law firm focusing on special needs children and civil rights impact litigation. She decided to start writing her memoir, Beautiful Country, in the wake of the 2016 US election of Donald Trump as president of the United States. She had been a naturalized American citizen for six months by this time.

Wang converted to Judaism, founding and leading a Jews of Color group at Manhattan Central Synagogue; on the day her debut memoir was released, Wang delivered a lay sermon to the congregation at Rosh Hashanah services. Wang is married, and she gave birth to a daughter in October 2023.