Mengdi Zhu is a lecturer and a PhD candidate at the Institute for Area Studies.

More information about Mengdi Zhu

Research Interests

My research interest lies in digital media and Chinese internet culture in general. Recently, I have
been focused on social media and multiplayer games as platforms for user interaction and public
discussion. I am interested in investigating the interplay between digital technologies and the
socio-cultural practices of humans.
My PhD project revolves around participatory culture and online activism on the Chinese social
media platform Weibo. In this project, I will try to understand the dynamics between various
actors including individual users, organisations, platform providers, and authorities under
entangled political-economic forces.

Supervisors: Dr. Florian Schneider and Dr. Svetlana Kharchenkova

Education

09/2021: PhD candidate in Modern Chinese Studies, Institute for Area Studies, Leiden
University

09/2018-11/2019: Master in Digital Media, Culture and Education, University College London
Dissertation: Game culture and player participation: the case of mobile MMORPG Onmyoji

07/2017: Summer school programme in Global Communications, Citizens and Cultural Politics,
London School of Economics and Political Science

09/2016-07/2018: Bachelor in Digital Media Art, Communication University of China (double
major)

09/2015: ACCA (Association of Chartered Certified Accountants) student, with advanced
diploma in accounting and business

09/2014-07/2018: Bachelor in Economics (media economy), Communication University of China
Dissertation: An Empirical Study of the Impact of Release Date Differences on Box Office of
Imported Films in China