Xinyan Luan

Xinyan Luan is a doctoral researcher at the Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology, affiliated with the Department of Anthropology of Economic Experimentation and the research group Constructing Urban Futures in Asia led by Christoph Brumann.

Education:

• M.Sc. in China in Comparative Perspective (2020–2021), Department of Anthropology, London School of Economics and Political Science (UK)
• B.A. in German Language and Literature (2016–2020), Department of Foreign Languages, University of Science and Technology Beijing (China)

Research Focus: Her work explores the political economy of urban construction in China, centering on housing markets and their role in shaping aspirations for a better life. She investigates how real estate developers, planners, and architects drive urban and social transformation in the Jing-Jin-Ji city cluster. Additionally, she studies power, violence, and legal pluralism, comparing Muslim communities in India and China to analyze state-centric legal frameworks.

Affiliations: She contributes to the International Max Planck Research School Global Multiplicity and was previously employed at a non-governmental think tank in Beijing.