I am Heng Simone Wang, a Han Chinese researcher, activist, and journalist. My research engages with trans studies, transnational feminisms, sexual and reproductive ethics, Sinophone studies, and global Asia studies. With an interdisciplinary background in sociology, cinema and media studies, gender and critical race studies, my research employs mixed methods including ethnography, archival study, and aesthetic critique. My work can be found in Journal of Homosexuality, Celebrity Studies, The Bulletin of Applied Transgender Studies, and Our Schools / Our Selves. I worked as a teaching assistant and research assistant at the Women and Gender Studies Institute and the Department of East Asian Studies at the University of Toronto from 2022 to 2024, and at the Institute for Gender, Race, Sexuality, and Social Justice and the Asian Canadian and Asian Migration Studies at the University of British Columbia since 2024. The courses I have been teaching include Introduction to Women and Gender Studies, Introduction to Social Justice, Asian Canadians in Popular Culture, and Modern Standard Chinese.

I have deeply engaged in community work across Canada and China. I was the Research Chair of ColorsWorld, a Beijing-based student-led queer youth organization. In 2024, I served on the 2SLGBTQ+ Student Mental Health Advisory Committee at the University of Toronto and the Trans Advisory Committee for Pride Toronto. I co-founded Haitu, a Vancouver-based nonprofit supporting Chinese and Sinophone trans people, where I serve as director and outreach officer. In recognition of my leadership in queer and trans communities, I was awarded the January Award by Sher Vancouver and the CRN Rainbow Scholarship by the Chinese Rainbow Network in 2025.

I am an award-winning film critic and journalist. I was awarded the CathayPlay Chinese Film Critics Award in 2021. Since 2022, I have covered the Toronto International Film Festival and the Sundance Film Festival yearly for World Screen, one of the most influential and widely circulated film magazines in China. I was accepted into the TIFF 2023 Media Inclusion Initiative and the SFF 2024 Press Inclusion Initiative, both with media accreditation and a stipend.