Mengyang Wu is an anthropological archaeologist who studies early cities and urbanization. Dr. Wu was trained in archaeology and bio-engineering at Xiamen University, China and received her PhD in anthropology from the University of British Columbia in 2022. Her fieldwork focuses primarily on Anyang, where two Bronze Age cities, Huanbei and Yinxu, are located. Her PhD dissertation, entitled “Everyday life in the making: ordinary people, daily practice, and urbanism at Yinxu, Late Shang (ca. 1250-1046 BC)”, explores the changing dynamics of daily life, with particular attention to how urban order was generated through everyday practices.

Her research examines foodways, sacrificial ritual, and human interaction with material culture. As an extension of her expertise in archaeological science, Dr. Wu is also developing an interest in various types and networks of mobility – residential and ritualized, and material and immaterial – during the emergence of early cities. She has been part of several international research groups supported by Social Science and Humanities Research Council, National Social Science fund of China, and Henry Luce foundation.