My academic interests focus on the processes and sites of intersection between music and mobility. Music in diaspora brought about by human migration, the distribution of music led by technology or media developments, and the power of music as a platform for social change are the three basic forms of intersection I study. With a principal geo-cultural specialty in Burma/Myanmar and its diaspora, my research in the past twenty years has concentrated on Burmese classical musicians, migrant workers, and Sino-Burmese immigrants.
My book, Unfaded Splendor: Representation and Modernity of the Burmese Classical Music Tradition (written in Chinese, National Taiwan University Press, 2012) was a study of the tradition called thachin gyi as performed by several classical musicians before Burma’s 2011 political and economic reform, when it was still used strategically as a response to the ruling military. I have continued to observe these musicians’ music-making post-reform to understand how their new access to a global market has had an impact on their music-making and transmission.
Apart from that, I also explore various ways of music-making amongst Sino-Burmese communities at home in Yangon, as well as in their diaspora communities in Macau, Taiwan, and Los Angeles. Key issues include the formation of multiple identities (generational, artistic, and ethnic), the performance of difference as defiance, soundscapes making, music embodiment, etc.
In recent years, I have brought cultural industrialization and cultural tourism into my scholarly focus, drawing from two case studies of the “Twin Water Festival phenomenon”: the first in Macau, where one festival is held by the Sino-Burmese community and the other by Burmese migrant workers (mostly ethnic Burmese, Chin, and Karen peoples). The second takes place in Taiwan, where one festival is held by the Sino-Burmese community in Taipei and the other by veterans of the KMT army withdrawn from the Thai-Burma borders to Taoyuan, a city south of Taipei. I explore cultural governance and ethnic politics emerging from the tensions generated from the Twin Water Festival phenomenon, as well as the economic, political, and social forces that shaped old patterns of interconnection.
Last, ever-mindful of the significant commonalities and differences between ethnomusicology and anthropology, I also view my research from a broader methodological perspective that links studies of sounds, space, society, embodiment, and sentiment between these two fields.
筆者主要的研究興趣在於對「傳統音樂」的當代現象進行深層探討，進一步實踐音樂民族誌 (musical ethnography)的寫作。筆者主要的學術研究區域為緬甸╱東南亞、亞太與台灣，過去探討對象側重在緬甸本土、亞太地區（台灣與美國西岸）、以及美國中部不同緬甸離散社群的音樂活動，包括這些地區的緬甸人╱緬甸華人╱其他緬甸族群；近來筆者的研究對象也涉及亞太地區其他東南亞移民，特別是亞裔美國人社群。
其研究旨趣有二：
第一，建立傳統民族音樂學的一般音樂知識。強調記錄當代個人與團體的音樂活動與音樂內容，並對音樂傳承、音樂概念化、以及音樂創新的方式等主題進行探討。筆者特別有興趣的研究課題之一，在於理解弱裔族群如何建構或想像一個『音樂文化遺產』，並如何對當代的「傳統」概念賦予新義。研究範圍也伸及融合不同傳統音樂與其他要素所產生的新興音樂現象，例如美國西岸在汎亞裔 (Pan-Asian)藝術家之間所創作出、具前衛作風的「音樂合作」(musical collaboration)，以及當代全球化的流行音樂現象（特別是「世界音樂」、「嘻哈」、以及「饒舌歌」）。民族音樂學另外強調，唯有藉由研究者自身對於其研究樂種的學習以及進行彈奏（或歌唱），才能對於音樂的傳承與概念化有更為深刻的理解。因此除了包括緬甸曼駝鈴、豎琴、鋼琴等的緬甸傳統器樂彈奏外，筆者也具備印度音樂、印尼音樂、台灣音樂、以及西方古典音樂的彈奏能力與理論基礎。
第二，強調音樂對於整體文化建構與多重認同塑造的重大意義。筆者側重說明當代人們如何利用音樂作為協商、策略化、並且「再現」(represent)社會關係的機制，藉此達到不同認同層面上的建構。筆者採用跨學科的理論與研究方法，並特別強調民族音樂學的視野與理論方法對探討這個機制的貢獻。筆者強調由於當代人們處在一個相較過去更為錯綜複雜的環境，研究者應該透過一個抽象化、具多層次的空間概念來思考音聲創作的所在脈絡，例如個人、家庭、社區、區域、（跨）國家、以及全球等，而人們的認同就在音聲創作過程中，進行與不同層面相關政治的協商與策略化。另外，研究者也應採取對不同層次空間交織下多樣概念的探討，這些概念包括有個別性、再現、多元文化主義、（跨）國家主義、全球化、性別、族群性、現代性等等。
筆者特別有興趣的研究對象為弱裔族群在主流文化強勢壓迫下所進行的音樂活動。對於如此的研究關注，筆者欲提出兩點見解：第一，對於被使用的音樂因素中，任何包括專制╱反抗、統治╱被統治、中心╱邊緣等有關對立衝突的二重概念，應該加以著重分析。第二，此研究關注應該在一個更寬廣的對象下進行實踐，研究對象不僅包括在公共領域下具族群特色的節慶或儀式等，也須要強調在私有領域展現的音樂活動，例如離散社群中具族群特色的卡拉OK店，以及這些移民或難民的音樂聆聽慣習等。最後，筆者強調在民族誌寫作上，研究者應自我反省這個被賦予寫作「文化知識」的特權。這樣的反省包括研究者對於自身所在的其他多重位置的意識，以及對於在如此多重位置所建構下的知識進行理解與探討。