Mia Wanlin Lu

Mia(Wanlin) is a PhD candidate in Anthropology at SOAS, University of London. She is a anthropologist, food culture and history writer and researcher, with four years of experience in the food industry, spanning sustainable farming, food-tech startups, and venture capital investment.

 She also holds a master’s degree in the Anthropology of Food. Her current research focuses on the changing foodways of the new generation of Chinese immigrants in London. It is the recipient of the SOAS China Institute and Sino-British Fellowship Trust (SBFT) Doctoral Scholarship. Her research interests include food and agriculture, migration, transnationalism, and China studies.

Before joining SOAS, Mia was the communications manager at Bits x Bites, China’s first food-tech venture capital firm investing in startups tackling global food system challenges. She led communications in mainland China and supported global communications initiatives. She began her career in the good food movement as the communications lead at Rice Harmony, a Chinese social enterprise promoting sustainable agriculture through the participatory guarantee system—an alternative certification method that actively involves stakeholders in ensuring safe, healthy, and sustainable food production.

In her spare time, Mia contributes to several Chinese media platforms. She is a native Mandarin/Cantonese speaker and is proficient in English, and the Chaozhou dialect.

• Food and Agriculture, Migration, 
• Transnationalism, 
• Lerisure,
• Consumption, 
• China