Xiaoning Lu received her BA and MA in Chinese Literature and Language from Nanjing University and Fudan University respectively.
She then earned her PhD in Comparative Literature from the State University of New York at Stony Brook. Prior to joining SOAS in 2010, she had taught cinema and cultural studies, modern Chinese literature and popular culture at Stony Brook University and Ludwig-Maximilian University of Munich.
Xiaoning’s research focuses on the complex relationship between cultural production and state governance in modern China. She is the author of Moulding the Socialist Subject: Cinema and Chinese Modernity 1949-1966 (Brill, 2020) and co-editor of The Oxford Handbook of Communist Visual Cultures (OUP, 2020). Her writings on various aspects of Chinese socialist cinema and culture have appeared in journals and edited collections, including Journal of Chinese Cinemas, Journal of Contemporary China, Chinese Film Stars, Maoist Laughter, Surveillance in Asian Cinema: Under Eastern Eyes and Words and Their Stories: Essays on the Language of the Chinese Revolution. She was recently a recipient of a Leverhulme Research Fellowship through which she researched transnational film practices in the People’s Republic of China from 1949 to 1989.
In addition to her scholarly work, Xiaoning is passionate at introducing contemporary Chinese films to UK audiences. With colleagues at Shanghai Art Film Federation, she co-curated Chinese Art Film Festival London Showcase from 2016 to 2018 exploring social and cultural issues in contemporary Chinese society, including the persistence of traditional values in China’s modernization and Chinese women’s filmmaking. Recognized for her regional expertise, she was invited to provide advice on China-related cultural production for the National Theatre, RDF television, and other media companies in the UK.
Xiaoning welcomes enquiries for doctoral projects in these (and related) areas: Chinese film history and aesthetics, and various forms of popular culture in contemporary China.
"构想的不定性” – 顽强的现代主义与法西斯主义在现代日本 ("Constitutive Ambiguities": The Persistence of Modernism and Fascism in Japan’s Modern History by Harry Haroontunian) [Translation]
迷途中的文化探索 – 论《新青年》与《东方杂志》的东西文化论争 [Cultural Exploration at Crossroads: the New Youth versus the Eastern Miscellany on Eastern and Western Cultures] = Mitu zhong de wenhua tansuo: lun Xin qingnian yu Dongfang zhazhi de dongxi wenhua lunzheng
《呼啸山庄》与《金锁记》情感世界之比较 [A Comparative Reading of the Emotional World in Wuthering Heights and The Golden Cangue] = Huxiao shanzhuan yu Jin suoji qinggan shijie zhi bijiao
Lu, Xiaoning and Liu, Zhiyi, 2000, 外国文学研究 (Waiguo wenxue yanjiu) = Foreign Literature Studies, 1, pp 59-64
In the Name of Internationalism: The Cinematic Memorialization of Norman Bethune in Socialist China
Lu, Xiaoning (2020). In: Skrodzka, Aga, (eds.), Lu, Xiaoning, (eds.) and Marciniak, Katarzyna, (eds.), The Oxford Handbook of Communist Visual Cultures. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, pp 341-363
Intermedial Laughter: Hou Baolin and xiangsheng dianying in mid-1950s’ China
Lu, Xiaoning (2019). In: Zhu, Ping, (eds.), Wang, Zhuoyi, (eds.) and McGrath, Jason, (eds.), Maoist Laughter. Hong Kong: University of Hong Kong Press, pp 73-88
Chinese Film Satire and Its Foreign Connections in the People’s Republic of China (1950-1957): Laughter without Borders?
Lu, Xiaoning (2017). In: Wesoky, Sharon, (eds.) and Tam, King-fai, (eds.), Not Just a Laughing Matter: Interdisciplinary Approaches to Political Humor in China. New York: Springer, pp 57-74
Promote Physical Culture and Sports, Improve the People’s Constitution
Lu, Xiaoning (2011). In: Wang, Ban, (ed.), Words and Their Stories: Essays on Chinese Revolutionary Discourse. Leiden: Brill Academic Publishers, pp 171-184
三十年代复古思潮的回流 – 针对“文言复兴”的大众语论争 [The Return of Traditionalists in the 1930s: Debate over Popular Language as a Response to the ‘Revival of Classical Language’] Sanshi niandai fugu sichao de huiliu: zhengdui ‘wenyan fuxing’ de dazhong yu lunzheng
Lu, Xiaoning (2004). In: Wu, Lichang, (ed.), 文学的消解与反消解 – 中国现代文学派别论争史论 = Negation and Anti-Negation of Literature: A History of Modern Chinese Literary Schools and Debates. Shanghai: Fudan University Press, pp 143-153
追求人生与游戏消遣 – 五四新文学观与鸳鸯蝴喋派文学观之争 [Art for Life’s Sake and Art for Entertainment: May Fourth New Literature versus Mandarin Ducks and Butterflies on Literature] Zhuqiu rensheng yu youxi xiaoqian: wusi xin wenxue guan yu yuanyang hudie pai wenxue guan zhi zheng
Lu, Xiaoning (2004). In: Wu, Lichang, (ed.), 文学的消解与反消解 – 中国现代文学派别论争史论 = Negation and Anti-Negation of Literature: A History of Modern Chinese Literary Schools and Debates. Shanghai: Fudan University Press, pp 131-142
老章又反叛了 – 甲寅派与革新派之争 [Lao Zhang’s Second Rebellion: the Jia Yin School versus the Reformists]
Lu, Xiaoning (2004). In: Wu, Lichang, (ed.), 文学的消解与反消解 – 中国现代文学派别论争史论 = Negation and Anti-Negation of Literature: A History of Modern Chinese Literary Schools and Debates. Shanghai: Fudan University Press, pp 113-130
反对文学革命的尾声- 学衡派与新青年派之争 [The Epilogue of Anti-Literature Revolution: Critical Review versus New Youth] Fandui wenxue geming de weisheng: Xueheng pai yu Xing qingnian pai zhi zheng
Lu, Xiaoning (2004). In: Wu, Lichang, (ed.), 文学的消解与反消解 – 中国现代文学派别论争史论 = Negation and Anti-Negation of Literature: A History of Modern Chinese Literary Schools and Debates. Shanghai: Fudan University Press, pp 95-112
搬开文学革命的绊脚石 – 革新派与复古派之争 [Removing Stumbling Blocks to Literary Revolution: Reformists versus Traditionalists] Bankai wenxue geming de banjiaoshi: Gexin pai yu Fugu pai zhi zheng
Lu, Xiaoning (2004). In: Wu, Lichang, (ed.), 文学的消解与反消解 – 中国现代文学派别论争史论 = Negation and Anti-Negation of Literature: A History of Modern Chinese Literary Schools and Debates. Shanghai: Fudan University Press, pp 75-94
怎样对待“纲常名教” – 陈独秀与杜亚泉关于东西方文化之争 [How to Treat ‘the Three Cardinal Guides and the Five Constant Virtues’: Chen Duxiu versus Da Yaquan on Eastern and Western Cultures] Zhenyang miandui ‘gang chang ming jiao’: Chen duxiu yu Du yaquan guanyu dongxi fang wenhua zhi zheng
Lu, Xiaoning (2004). In: Chang, Wu li, (ed.), 文学的消解与反消解 – 中国现代文学派别论争史论 = Negation and Anti-Negation of Literature: A History of Modern Chinese Literary Schools and Debates. Shanghai: Fudan University Press, pp 62-74
开启文学有无功利的重要话题 – 梁启超与王国维之争[Purposiveness of Literature?: Liang Qichao versus Wang Guowei] Kaiqi wenxue you wu gongli de zhongyao huati: Liang Qichao yu Wang Guowei zhi zheng
Lu, Xiaoning (2004). In: Wu, Lichang, (ed.), 文学的消解与反消解 – 中国现代文学派别论争史论 = Negation and Anti-Negation of Literature: A History of Modern Chinese Literary Schools and Debates. Shanghai: Fudan University Press, pp 52-61
文学现代转型之先兆 – 晚清文学变革中白话文言之争 [A Precursor to Modernization of Modern Chinese Literature: Classical Language versus Vernacular Language in Late Qing Literary Reform] Wenxue xiandai zhuan xing zhi xian zhao: wan Qing wenxue biange zhong baihua wenyan zhi zheng
Lu, Xiaoning (2004). In: Wu, Lichang, (ed.), 文学的消解与反消解 – 中国现代文学派别论争史论 = Negation and Anti-Negation of Literature: A History of Modern Chinese Literary Schools and Debates. Shanghai: Fudan University Press, pp 35-51
Review of: Culture and Social Transformations: Theoretical Framework and Chinese Context edited by Cao Tianyu, Zhong Xueping, Liao Kebin and Ban Wang, Leiden: Brill, 2014.