Leksa Lee is a cultural anthropologist focusing on contemporary political economy, visual and material culture, and the built environment. Her book project is an ethnography of a museum design company in contemporary China. The book tracks how museum designers and local governments carry out state initiatives to transform China’s economy by constructing huge new museums as part of local development plans, and by linking up new production chains to fabricate artifact replicas. In Lee’s new research project, she examines how elite Chinese emigrants are altering urban landscapes around the world through investment-based visas like the United States’ EB-5 program.

Lee received her PhD in anthropology from the University of California, Irvine. Her dissertation won the 2019 International Conference of Asia Scholars prize for the Social Sciences. Her research has been awarded support by the Fulbright Fellowship, Fulbright Hays, the Chiang Ching-kuo Foundation, and the Association for Asian Studies. 

Lee teaches classes on contemporary China, ethnography, business and work, memory and culture, and sound media.

Research Interests

• Capitalism and Postsocialism
• Materiality, Visuality, and the Built Environment
• Local Politics in China
• Museums, Memory, and History
• China and Investment-based Visa Program

Select Publications

• “Mediating Business Risk on the Shanghai Subway.” Anthropology News. 2019
• “Review of Curating Revolution: Politics on Display in Mao’s China, by Denise Ho.” PRC History Review. 2018
• Modeling China: Business, Politics, and Material in China’s Museum Industry. Dissertation. University of California, Irvine. 2016
• “Review of Anxious Wealth: Money and Morality among China’s New Rich, by John Osburg.” Journal of Cultural Economy. 2015
• “A House Museum Café, Parts 1 and 2.” The China Beat. 2010

Education

• PhD, Anthropology
  University of California, Irvine
• MA, Anthropology
  University of California, Irvine