Dada Wang was born in Beijing, China. She earned her B.A. in Art History from Macalester College. Her undergraduate honors thesis explored the sociopolitical significance of the works of Chinese performance artists Zhang Huan, Ma Liuming, and He Yunchang. Her primary interest of study is the visual culture of contemporary China, and she is particularly interested in how globalized transformations of the art world have disrupted the center-periphery model of traditional art historical inquiries.