Bio

I am a museum curator and an ethnomusicologist (PhD  in ethnomusicology, the University of Texas at Austin) specializing in Taiwanese and Chinese musical cultures. Currently, I serve as Curator for Asia and Oceania at the Musical Instrument Museum (MIM) in Phoenix, USA, where I oversee the museum’s Asian and Oceanic collections and related exhibits. Since joining MIM in 2020, I have contributed to numerous projects involving exhibitions, acquisitions, catalog writing, and video content production, and have delivered public talks and invited lectures on musical and instrumental cultures. Prior to joining MIM, I taught courses on world music and Chinese music at Boyer College of Music and Dance at Temple University and at UT-Austin.

My research interests include organology and music iconography of Asian and Pacific musical traditions, Indigeneity and music/sound culture in Taiwan, and sustainability. My dissertation, titled “Reviving Musical Indigeneity: Institutionalization, Transmission, and Revival of Taiwan’s Aboriginal Music,” examines the intersection between musical practices of Taiwan’s Indigenous peoples, Intangible Cultural Heritage, and revivalism in contemporary Taiwan. My scholarly work has been supported by the Chiang Ching-Kuo Foundation Dissertation Fellowship, the UT-Austin Continuing Fellowship, grants from the Rapoport Center for Human Rights and Justice, and the Vida Chenoweth Prize. I have presented my research at various conferences, including the International Council for Traditional Music (ICTM) Forum, the ICTM symposium of Study Group on Musics of East Asia (MEA), the Society for Ethnomusicology (SEM) Annual Conference and regional chapters, the American Musical Instrument Society (AMIS) annual meeting, and CHIME – The European Foundation for Chinese Music Research.

In addition to my curatorial and research work, I am an active performer specializing in the Chinese dizi and xiao flutes. I hold a bachelor’s degree in dizi performance from the Department of Chinese Music at Tainan National University of the Arts. I have performed across a range of international venues and festivals, including the SXSW Music Festival (2018), the International Accordion Festival (2014), and lecture-recital tours in Pakistan (2016, 2017, 2022) sponsored by the U.S. Department of State and  UT-Austin. In addition to the dizi and xiao, my performance practice also spans diverse musical traditions, such as maqam-based music on the Arabic nay flute, the Indigenous Paiwan lalingedan nose flute, and Javanese gamelan. I have collaborated with several world music ensembles, including the raga-inspired group Sangat!, the Arabic band Indimaj إندماج, and GO: Organic Orchestra led by Adam Rudolph. These performance experiences continue to inform my research and curatorial approach.