Ms Xiao Ma
My PhD project investigates the cultural complexities of London’s Chinatown through critically examining the notion and practice of Chinatown heritage in global London. Through analysing how different Londoners create meanings about Chinatown, my research challenges the homogenising portrait of Chinatown as a bounded urban space defined by fixed ethnic differences. The title of my PhD thesis is 'Everyday Heritage, Spatio-temporal Dynamics and Place-making: Rethinking the Social Production of London’s Chinatown on the Backdrop of COVID-19'.
Outside academic research, I worked as a journalist and wrote news stories on UK art, culture, education and business for a Chinese audience from 2013 to 2015. Between 2016 and 2024, I worked for China Exchange, a UK-registered charity, that aims to create opportunities for the UK general public to learn more about contemporary China, Chinese culture and London's Chinatown. I have also collaborated with the UK Web Archive, curating the 'Chinese in the UK' Special Collection and the 'East and Southeast Asians in the UK' Special Collection.
Xiao holds a Master’s Degree in Creative Media and Enterprises from the University of Warwick (2013) and a Postgraduate Diploma in Asian Art from SOAS University of London with distinction (2016).