Adria Xiao Fu

Adria Xiao Fu is a Ph.D. student in the Corcoran Department of History at the University of Virginia. Her research examines the mobility of Han Chinese communities across modern Northeast Asia and challenges approaches that treat the Chinese as a single, homogeneous group. Instead, she explores how different identity labels were embraced, contested, or rejected by states and individuals alike, revealing how struggles over identity shaped the region’s changing landscapes of power, rights, and belonging.

Beyond her academic research, Adria is committed to public history and community engagement in her hometown of Shenzhen. She is currently preparing an oral history initiative tentatively titled “Vases in the Communist Party’s Living Room: China’s Democratic Parties and the Building of the Shenzhen Special Economic Zone,” which seeks to document the experiences and memories of members of China’s non-Communist political parties who participated in the development of the Shenzhen Special Economic Zone.

A proud Shenzhener, Adria remains deeply connected to the city where she spent much of her youth. Outside of her academic and public-facing work, she is an avid snowboarder and equestrian. She proudly represented Shenzhen University on its women’s basketball team and later enjoyed riding with the Arizona State University Equestrian Team.She also finds herself in language learning.