Prof. LU Miao 路淼

Ph.D. in Communication, The Chinese University of Hong Kong
M.A. in International Journalism, Communication University of China
Bachelor of Arts (major), Central China Normal University
Bachelor of Economics (minor), Wuhan University

Monograph

Lu, M. (2025). The Transsion Approach: Translating Chinese Mobile Technology in Africa. University of Illinois Press (Geopolitics of Information Series).

Articles in Referred Journals

Lu, M. (2025). Connecting the last mile in Africa: A volumetric analysis of internet balloons and rural base stations. Media, Culture & Society, 1-21.

Lu, M. & Xie, Z.(2025).Gaming the mobility regimes during COVID-19: Border-making and crossing between China and Africa. Information, Communication & Society, 1-20.

Wei, R., Lo, V.H., Zhang, X., Lu, M., & Qiu, J. L. (2024). Examining the impact of digital information environments, information processing, and presumed influence on behavioral responses to COVID-19 misinformation in Asia. New Media and Society. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1177/14614448241252391

Lu, M. (2024). Mobile phone repair in Ghana: Comparing three approaches. New Media & Society, 26(4), 2092-2109.

Lu, M. (2023). Under the socialist gaze : Solidarity, soft Power, and China’s representation of Africa in two eras. Journal of Asian and African Studies. https://doi.org/10.1177/00219096221144689

Lu, M., & Qiu, J. L. (2023). Transfer or translation? Rethinking traveling technologies from the Global South. Science, Technology, & Human Values, 48(2), 272-294.

Lu, M., Lo, V.H., & Wei, R. (2023). Countering COVID-19 misinformation: An influence of presumed influence study in Hong Kong. Communication and Society, 65, 191–217. [In Chinese]

Lu, M. & Qiu, J. L. (2022). Empowerment or warfare? Dark skin, AI camera, and Transsion’s patent narratives. Information, Communication & Society (AoIR special issue: Independence), 25(6), 768-784.

Lu, M. (2022). From “working class culture” to “public culture”: Changing national memories of the Workers’ Cultural Palace (1949-2015). Communication & Society, 60, 157-183. [In Chinese]

Lu, M. (2021). Translating a Chinese approach? Rural distribution and marketing in Ghana’s phone industry. Media, Culture & Society, 43(2), 309-325.

Lu, M. (2021). Designed for the bottom of the pyramid: A case study of a Chinese phone brand in Africa. Chinese Journal of Communication, 14(1), 24-39.

Lu, M. & Fan, H. (2018). I sang, therefore I am! Uses and gratifications of self-mocking memes and the effects on psychological well-being. International Journal of Cyber Behavior, Psychology and Learning (IJCBPL), 8(2), 35-50.

Commentary

Chen, K.H., Lu, M., & Qiu, J. L. (2022). Back to Bandung for the future: The never-ending project of deimperialization. Communication Theory, 32(2), 281-288.

Book Chapter

Lo, V.H., Zhang, X., & Lu, M. (2023). Consequences of exposure to misinformation. In R. Wei (Ed.), Miscommunicating the COVID-19 pandemic: An Asian perspective (pp. 89-110). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003355984-6

Lu, M. (2022). Technology translations between China and Ghana: The case of low-end phone design. In R. Hoyng & G. P. Chong (Eds.), Critiquing communication innovation: New media in a multipolar world (pp.172-205). Michigan State University Press.

Book Review

Lu, M. (2024). Book Review: The Labor of Reinvention: Entrepreneurship in the New Chinese Digital Economy, By Lin Zhang, Columbia University Press, 2023, US $30 (paperback), 312 pp. Chinese Journal of Communication, 1-3. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1080/17544750.2024.2348914 

Commoning the circular economy: A study of repair practices in the Greater Bay Area. Direct Grant,LU Research Committee. Lingnan University. PI. Jan 2025-Dec 2026. HKD 100,000.

Platform commons as an alternative future? A comparative study of Hong Kong, Taiwan, South Korea, and Japan. Lam Woo Research Fund, Lingnan University. PI. May 2024 – Apr 2026. HK$497,908.

Competing for Africa’s Digital Infrastructure: Cables, Base Stations, and Chinese Telecom Companies in Ghana. Early Career Scheme. Research Grants Council (HKSAR). PI. Sep 2023 – Aug 2026. HK$548,365.

Competing for Africa’s Digital Infrastructure: Cables, Base Stations, and Chinese Telecom Companies in Ghana. Faculty Research Grant. LU Research Committee. PI. June 2023 – May 2025. HK$49,940.

Research Seed Fund, Lingnan University, August 2022–February 2024. PI. HK$40,000.

Lu, M. & Avle, S.(2025). Data center for the tropics: Heat, Chinese tech, and thermopolitics in West Africa. 4S, September 3-7, Seattle, the USA.

Tang, H.M. & Lu, M. (2025). Repairing the Hong Kong society: Community projects as a way of commoning. The 2025 Inter-Asia Cultural Studies Conference, July 23-25, Nakhon Si Thammarat, Thailand.

Lu, M. (2025).Infrastructuring the last mile: Chinese tech, rural base station, and the densification of mobile network in Ghana. Africa-Asia, A New Axis of Knowledge Conference-Festival 3, June 11-14, Dakar, Senegal.

Zheng, W. & Lu, M. (2025). Last mile infrastructures in Afro-Asia: Human, logistics system and environment. Africa-Asia, A New Axis of Knowledge Conference-Festival 3, June 11-14, Dakar, Senegal.

Lu, M. (2024). Connecting the last mile in Africa: A volumetric analysis of internet balloons and rural base stations.EASST-4S 2024 Amsterdam Conference, July 16-19, Amsterdam, the Netherlands.

Qiu, J.L. & Lu, M. (2024). Optimizing smartphone cameras for digital inclusiveness: From Africa to Southeast Asia. The 74^th Annual International Communication Association (ICA) Conference, June 20-24, Gold Coast, Australia.

Lu, M. (2024). Connecting the last mile in Africa: Balloons, drones, and rural base stations. The 74^th Annual International Communication Association (ICA) Conference, June 20-24, Gold Coast, Australia.

Lu, M. & Pun, N. (2024) Platform commons as an alternative future? A comparative study of Hong Kong, Taiwan, South Korea, and Japan. The Commons Workshop. Jeju, South Korea. 

Qiu, J.L., Lu, M., & Gregg, M. (2023). Servicing phones in the Global South: The case of CarlCare. The 20th Annual Chinese Internet Research Conference (CIRC), July 12-14, Chiang Mai, Thailand.

Xie, Z. & Lu, M. (2023). The making of “bodily infrastructure”: Exploring the body-technology nexus and cross-border traveling during COVID-19. The 73rd Annual International Communication Association (ICA) Conference, May 23-31, Toronto, Canada.

Lu, M. & Xie, Z. (2022). Unstable body, fragile mobility: Digital media, Covid-19 and biometric borders between China and Africa. The International Association for Media and Communication Research (IAMCR) Annual Conference 2022, July 11-15, Beijing.

Lu, M. & Wang, G.Y. (2022). Africa as the new battlefield of smartphone wars: A comparative study of Transsion and Xiaomi. The 72nd Annual International Communication Association (ICA) Conference, May 26-30, Paris, France.

Lo, V.H., Wei, R., Lu, M., Zhang, G., & Qiu, J.L. (2022). A comparative study of the impact of digital media environments, information processing, and presumed influence on behavioral responses to COVID-19 misinformation in Asia. The 72nd Annual International Communication Association (ICA) Annual Conference, May 26-30, Paris, France.

Lu, M. & Lo, V.H. (2022). Examining media exposure and the influence of presumed influence on Hong Kong citizens’ behaviour during the COVID-19 pandemic. The 2022 Greater China Visiting Scholar Program: COVID-19 Pandemic and Media, January 20-21, Hong Kong.

Lu, M. & Qiu, J. L. (2021). Algorithmic empowerment or imperialist warfare? Dark skin, AI camera, and a Chinese company’s patent strategy. The 22nd Annual Conference of the Association of Internet Researchers (AoIR), October 13-16, Virtual conference.

Lu, M. (2021). Rethinking “development” in the China-Africa context: A genealogy and a new conceptualization. The International Association for Media and Communication Research (IAMCR) Conference 2021, July 11-15, Virtual conference.

Qiu, J. L., Lu, M., & Wang, Z. (2021). Repair the business of repair. The Cost of Convenience: Technology and the Environment Workshop, Minderoo Centre for Technology and Democracy, University of Cambridge, July 17, Virtual workshop.

Lu, M. (2021). An ethnographic study of repair in Ghana’s phone industry: Comparing three approaches. The 71st Annual International Communication Association (ICA) Conference, May 27-31, Virtual conference.

Lu, M. (2021). “Oburoni” or “Sister Beijing”? Fieldwork reflections from China and Ghana. “Revisiting Networked China” Conference, Moody College of Communication, The University of Texas at Austin, April 3 & 10, Virtual conference.

Lu, M. (2020). Transfer or translation? Rethinking traveling technologies from the Global South. The 70th Annual International Communication Association (ICA) Conference, May 21-25, Virtual conference.

Lu, M. (2020). “Below the Line”: A Chinese phone company’s rural marketing in Ghana. @frica: Digital Media Conference, February 27-28, Houston, USA.

Lu, M. (2019). Designed for the bottom of the pyramid: Examining a Chinese phone company in Africa. The 17th Annual Chinese Internet Research Conference (CIRC), June 28, Singapore.

Lu, M. (2019). The politics of big battery: Marketing a Chinese phone brand to rural Africa. The 69th Annual International Communication Association (ICA) Conference, May 24-28, Washington DC, USA.

Lu, M. (2019). Designing phones for the poor: An ethnographic study of a Chinese phone company. The 68th Annual International Communication Association (ICA) Conference, May 24-28, Washington DC, USA.

Lu, M. (2018). Representing Africa in China: Comparing the Maoist and Post-Maoist eras. The 67th Annual International Communication Association (ICA) Conference, May 24-28, Prague, Czech Republic.

Lu, M., & Fan, Hua. (2017). Self-mockery as an alternative social strategy: Gratifications-sought, need for humor, narcissism, and self-mocking meme usage. The 100th Annual Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (AEJMC) Conference, August 9-12, Chicago, Illinois, USA.