Lily gained her doctor of anthropology from Fudan University, and Master of Science in Sociology from the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences,

She was formerly a senior consultant at Oxford Research International (Germany), General Manager of Oxford Research International (China), and a Senior Researcher at the Center for Contemporary China Social Life at Fudan University.

She is currently director of the Business Anthropology Teaching and Research Base at Fudan University.

Lily has more than 15 years of experience in social studies, market research and cultural symbols research in Germany, Canada and China. She also has extensive management consulting experience. Influenced by her extensive professional training in sociology and anthropology, she has many years of business experience. She has worked as a senior researcher for many United Nations research projects, and has extensive experience in qualitative research. 

She has also acted as a researcher and consultant for the fast moving consumer goods, luxury, automobile and fashion industries, studying consumer behavior and motivations, and has considerable expertise in market positioning, brand positioning, brand building and upgrading and brand communication policy making.

Her clients include McDonald's, Citizen, multiple Pernod Ricard brands, l'Oréal, Coca Cola, Cadillac and hundreds of other Chinese and foreign well-known companies. She has also worked with the Guangdong Tourism Bureau, and major government bodies such as the Committee of the Shanghai World Expo.