Xin Wen (Ch. 文欣) is a historian of medieval China and Inner Asia. His work goes beyond the dynastic units of Tang (618-907) and Song (960-1279), and situates “China” in the connected world of Eurasia.

His current book, The King's Road: Diplomacy and the Remaking of the Silk Road, project examines the ways people traveled between Northwestern China and Central Asia in the ninth and tenth centuries. Utilizing multi-lingual manuscripts from Dunhuang as well as transmitted Chinese texts, this book shows a world in which the movements of people were motivated primarily by the pursuit of social prestige rather than the interest in commercial profit. His research interests in medieval China also include manuscript culture, urban history, and digital humanities.