Meina Jia Sandal

• Presentation
• Research outputs
• Press/Media

I received my PhD in China Studies from Aarhus University, where I finished a monograph-based dissertation with the title Daigou: Transnational Flows, Relatedness, and the Reproduction of the Chinese Family. I obtained a master’s degree in Culture, Communication, and Globalization from Aalborg University. I also had short-term study experience at Doshisha University and the Hong Kong Polytechnic University.

My PhD dissertation discusses the impact and meaning of transnational daigou (buying-on-behalf-of) businesses, where Chinese immigrants, primarily women, supply networks of kin and friends in China with infant formula bought in Denmark. The circulation of goods and capital between consumers and suppliers results in an extensive transnational network based on mutual trust and morality. In this respect, the daigou practices constitute both vertical intergenerational and horizontal transnational forms of relatedness, which in different ways contribute to solving the conundrum of family reproduction in contemporary China and the Chinese diaspora. 

Fields of interest

I am interested in research topics on food and morality, intergenerational relationships, transnationalism and globalization related to China.

Current research

My current research is linked to a collaborative ethnographic project Moral Economies of Food in Contemporary China which is funded by the Danish Council for Independent Research (DFF) in Humanities. 

For more information, please see https://ccrs.ku.dk/research/centres-and-projects/moral-economies-of-food-in-contemporary-china/

Teaching

I taught the M.A. course Regional Perspective on Global Issues and B.A. courses Regional Theme: Contemporary China; Kinesisk på højere mellemniveau: lytte og tale; Analysing Chinese Media; Human Geography on China at Aarhus University