Magdalena Wong was born and raised in Hong Kong as a British subject — neither fully inside China nor outside it. In 1982, she graduated from the University of Hong Kong with a degree in Sociology and joined the research industry at a moment when China's markets were just beginning to open. Over the following decade, she became one of a small number of professionals going into a mainland China that was unpredictable at the time.

In 1994, she founded Oracle Market Research in Hong Kong, building it from a single desk into one of the most respected consumer insight firms in China. Oracle was acquired by WPP's Kantar division in 2004. The company’s growth tracked China’s own transformation — from a country where focus group participants took notes as a sign of respect, to one that would become the world’s largest consumer market.

In 2012, Magdalena chose a second rupture: she left the corporate world to pursue a Master’s in Anthropology at University College London and then a PhD at the London School of Economics, awarded in 2017. Since then, she has taught in Hong Kong and published academic writings.