About
Dr. Xiaoning Lu is Reader in Modern Chinese Culture and Language at SOAS University of London's School of Languages, Cultures and Linguistics. She holds a BA and MA in Chinese Literature and Language from Nanjing University and Fudan University, respectively, and a PhD in Comparative Literature from SUNY Stony Brook. Prior to joining SOAS in 2010, she taught at Stony Brook University and Ludwig-Maximilian University of Munich.
Her research examines the interplay between cultural production and state governance in modern China, with emphasis on socialist cinema, transnational film practices, and visual cultures. Key interests include:
- Cinema as ideological apparatus during 1949-1966
- Transnational film circulation during the Cold War
- Cultural mediation in China-Africa relations
- Gender representation in Chinese filmmaking
Publications span documentary practice, satire, war cinema, and socialist subjectivity, reflecting interdisciplinary approaches blending film studies, political theory, and cultural history. Her work consistently engages with methodologies of transnational analysis and archival recovery.
Honors include the Leverhulme Research Fellowship supporting her investigation of PRC transnational film practices (1949-1989). She has supervised doctoral projects on militarism in Middle Eastern cinema, feminist utopias in Chinese internet literature, and queer allegories in Sinophone novels.
As co-curator of the Chinese Art Film Festival London (2016-2018), she has facilitated cultural exchange between UK audiences and contemporary Chinese filmmakers.
