The recipient of the National Communication Association's James A. Winans-Herbert A. Wichelns Award for Rhetoric in Ancient China, Fifth to Third Century B.C.E.: A Comparison with Classical Greek Rhetoric (University of South Carolina Press, 1998), Lu received her undergraduate degree in China, her M.A. in Australia, and her Ph.D. from the University of Oregon. She lives with her husband and daughter in Wilmette, Illinois.