Bio

I am a bamboo flautist and an ethnomusicologist (PhD  in ethnomusicology, the University of Texas at Austin) who writes about Taiwanese and Chinese musical culture. Currently, I am the curator for Asia at the Musical Instrument Museum (MIM) in Phoenix, USA, where I am responsible for the museum’s Asian collection and related exhibits. Among my previous positions, I served as an adjunct faculty in Boyer College of Music and Dance at Temple University.

My research interests include: organology (the study of musical instruments); indigeneity and music/sound culture in Taiwan; and music and cultural sustainability. My dissertation, titled “Reviving Musical Indigeneity: Institutionalization, Transmission, and Revival of Taiwan’s Aboriginal Music,” focuses on the intersection between musical practices of Taiwan’s Indigenous peoples, Intangible Cultural Heritage, and revivalism in contemporary Taiwan. My project has been awarded the Chiang Ching-Kuo Foundation Dissertation Fellowship, UT-Austin Continuing Fellowship, and the grants from Rapoport Center for Human Rights and Justice.

Besides my primary research focus, I am also interested in the institutionalization and pedagogy of traditional music in East Asia. My article “Traditional Music for the People: Chinese Music Departments in the PRC and Taiwan” is published in College Music Curricula for a New Century (2017), edited by Dr. Robin Moore. I have presented my research at International Council for Traditional Music (ICTM) forum, ICTM symposium of Study Group on Musics of East Asia (MEA), Society for Ethnomusicology Southern Plains (SEMSP), and Society for Ethnomusicology (SEM) Annual Conference.

I am also a dizi flute player and multi-instrumentalist. A Taiwan native, I received my bachelor’s degree in dizi performance from the Department of Chinese Music at Tainan National University of the Arts. I have performed at various events, such as the 2014 International Accordion Festival and 2018 SXSW Music Festival in Austin, Texas. In 2016 and 2017, I was funded by the U.S. Department of State and University of Texas at Austin to lecture and perform at the National Academy of Performing Arts in Pakistan. Since 2012, I have studied and performed music in a variety of musical traditions, including maqam-based music on the nay end-blown flute, Taiwanese Indigenous nose flute, and Javanese gamelan. I have extensively performed with several world music groups in the U.S., including Sangat! (raga-based fusion group), Arabic band Indimaj إندماج, and Adam Rudolph’s GO: Organic Orchestra.