Hu Tai-Li’s earlier research focused on Taiwan’s rural industrialization and social change, investigating economic and cultural factors involved in the rapid transformation of Taiwan from an agricultural society to an industrially and commercially oriented one. She paid special attention to the characteristics of the small-scale industries that developed in rural communities and their relationship to the concept of the traditional family and changes in the status of women. She also studied ethnic relations and the identity of veteran-mainlanders migrated to Taiwan with the Nationalist Chinese government in the post-war period.
Hu Tai-Li later focused on cultural performances, including Taiwan indigenous peoples’ ritual singing and dancing. She recorded, translated and analyzed the intricate “texts” (lyrics and movements) of the magnificent biennial Saisiat Pasta’ay ceremony and the Paiwan Five-Year Maleveq ceremony in the dynamic context of ritual performances to discover their deeper cultural meanings; she interviewed Paiwan nose-flute and mouth-flute players to identify various regional traditions, which laid a foundation for the study of Paiwan emotions and aesthetics. In addition, through anthropological participation from fieldwork to staged performances, Hu found that each culture’s interpretative framework for cultural reality and performance can influence the processes and consequences of cultural interaction. Hu’s interest in cultural performances has extended to the realm of ethnographic filmmaking.
From 1984, Hu Tai-Li directed and produced eight ethnographic documentaries. These films were screened widely in commercial theaters, tribal centers, and at domestic and international film festivals, where they engaged audiences and stimulated cultural reflection. Her Voices of Orchid Island presents multi-voices and interpretations of indigenous experiences in the post-colonial environment; Returning Souls records a dream and the actions taken by young Tafalong as they worked to revitalize their traditional culture and produce a new life in this new era. Sounds of Love and Sorrow explores the aesthetics of the Paiwan visual system and challenges the “reality” of observational documentaries.
Hu Tai-Li has also studied in-depth Paiwan shamanic culture, recording and analyzing the chanted text, trance phenomenon, sacred shamanic beads, the decline and succession of the shamanic tradition, as well as carrying out cross-cultural comparisons.
Hu Tai-Li's reseach content and results from 2008 to 2013 can be summarized in two categories.
the interpretation of Paiwan culture and the study on Paiwan shamanic ritual chants:
In my book The Interpretation of Paiwan Cultures (2011), I provide new and unique interpretations of Paiwan culture with special fieldwork sensitivity and emotional touch. This book consists of two parts. In the first part, “tradition, emotion and aesthetics,” I analyzes representative Paiwan images, sound patterns and oral traditions to reveal the hyper-cognized Paiwan emotions and aesthetics of “thoughtful sorrow,” supporting and highlighting the increasingly important approach of emotion and affect in cultural interpretation. The second part, “ritual, text and images” focuses on dynamic ritual texts and discusses the magnificent Paiwan Five-Year Ceremony’s relationship with the important concepts of village, hunting, and head-hunting, and explores the deep meaning of the “one road” linking this world with the spirit world. The study of ritual texts performed by Paiwan shamans discovers that “House” and “Village” are personified/ deified, and have life and power, and transcend the limitations of their materiality. This study leads cultural interpretation in new directions.
In the Austronesian Paiwanese society, shamans called puringau or marada are all female. They play very important roles in all kinds of rituals from the magnificent tribal five-year-ceremony to the individual growing and healing rituals. One can not become a shaman without learning the chants (marada). The Paiwan shamans’ ritual texts, especially the chanting texts have been considered by the Paiwanese and the researchers the most difficult part to understand. My recent papers have been concentrated on the analysis of Paiwan Kualao shamanic chants and to discover the uniqueness of Paiwan shamans and the related symbolic structures in the context of global shamanic performances.
In “Chants and Healing Rituals of the Paiwan Shamans in Taiwan”（2010）, I point out that although Paiwan female shamans both recite and chant, it is only while chanting that Paiwan shamans arrive on the road connecting this world to the ancestral world and become possessed by the creating and founding spirits who can provide defensive spiritual power and good fortune to human beings. Exemplified by the healing rituals, we can see that Paiwan shamanic chanting with expensive pig offerings gives one a better chance of obtaining spiritual power to achieve the healing effect. The Paiwan Kulalao shamans unlike those in many societies neither builds up her own power nor operates her own spirit to heal patients; rather, she relies on creating and founding spirits to bestow and enhance defensive spiritual power to achieve healing. As long as she knows how to chant, the Kulalao shaman doesn’t have to worry too much about the efficacy of rituals.
The paper “The Contemporary Performances of the Paiwan Kulalao Shamans’ Chants” (排灣古樓女巫師唱經的當代展演2010）examines the conditions and texts of shamans’ chanting performances in Paiwan Kulalao village. Through the detailed analysis of the Paiwan shaman’s basic ritual chants (consisting eight fixed chapters) and the performing context, I obtain better understanding of the essence of Paiwan religion and culture, for example, the concepts of the spiritual power, the “road” connecting this world and the other world, the multifaces of gods and ancestors, and the emotion of thoughtful sorrow, etc..
In “Paiwan Shamanic Chants in Taiwan -Texts and Symbols” (2011) , after comparing the
chanting texts and performances of Paiwan shamans with those in Siberia, Mongolia, Indonesia and Niger,etc., I find that the high degree of fixedness of the chanting texts and the low degree of dramatization that exists in the ecstatic chanting performances are distinguishing characteristics of Paiwan Kulalao shamanic chants. The Paiwan shamanic chanting speech is an extreme case of “entexualized language”. The reasons for the fixedness and entexualization have been explored in the Paiwan Kulalao symbolic system.
In the past five years, I worked with my colleague Liu Pi-Chen, to set up a research team entitled "Shamans and Ritual Performances in Contemporary Contexts." The research team's initial findings were published in 2010 in the book "Shamans and Ritual Performances of the Indigenous Peoples in Taiwan." (台灣原住民巫師與儀式展演) The research team later extended its attention internationally, actively taking part in the ISSR (International Society for Shamanic Research) conferences, and organizing an international conference entitled the “Shamanic Chants and Symbolic Representation.” Several papers presented at this conference were reviewed and published in SHAMAN: Journal of the International Society for Shamanic Research ( 2011, Volume 19, Numbers 1&2).
the study on visual anthropology and the making of ethnographic films
Visual anthropology contains the making of ethnographic films and the study on visual culture.
In 2012, I made another ethnographic film Returning Souls. This film depicts the fall and reconstruction of the historically most famous Amis ancestral house in Tafalong village. After a strong typhoon toppled the house 40 years ago, the pillars were moved to the Institute of Ethnology Museum. Recently young villagers, with assistance from female shamans, pushed the descendants and village representatives to communicate with ancestors in the pillars. They eventually brought the ancestral souls（rather than the pillars）back and began reconstructing the house. This film shows that in an environment highly influenced by western religions, national land policy, and local politics, the dream of the young people for cultural revitalization and to bring back not only the ancestral souls but also the soul of the village encountered many frustrations. Two film review essays point out the contributions of this film: “ Returning Souls is an intricate portrait of indigenous Taiwanese cultural revival and postcolonial negotiation of identity, religion, and the politics involved in the "return" of cultural heritage to its place of origin.” (Kate Hennessy 2013, American Anthropologist Vol. 115, NO.1. ) K“The film provides a moving record of the frustrations and triumphs experienced by the Tafalong villagers and sheds new light on a range of intellectual issues: the changing role of the museum, the complexities of cultural property claims, the tensions inherent in cultural revitalization projects-all of which have import well beyond this particular context.” (Rough E. Toulson 2012 Visual Anthropology 25: 450-451) Returning Souls was screened in ten indigenous villages, many Taiwanese universities and communities, and carried out an 2013 US screening tour in six universities to spur discussion, introspection, and actions.
The 2008 article “Paiwan Image Performances and Local Aesthetics” (排灣族的影像展演與在地美感）explores the Paiwan people’s visual system through the observation of their interaction with the camera, and the images of representative symbols in legends. The highly recognized emotions and aesthetics of thoughtful sorrow (tarimuzau/mapaura) is discussed and related to the aesthetics of the Paiwan visual system. When the camera is working, the Paiwan people desire to dress up and perform naturally and beautifully like those ancestral symbols for the purpose of being remembered by their descendants in the mood of thoughtful sorrow. As a matter of fact, they not only react to the camera, they actually direct the camera to fulfill their cultural expectations. The study of the Paiwan visual system has touched the basic problem of ethnographic representation. Whose aesthetics have been represented? The traditional ethnographies often neglect the local aesthetics and the meaning underlying the “performances”. Through the analysis of film images and legends, it is easier to sense the specific aesthetics and performances of the culture. The Paiwan local aesthetics and performances also challenges the western “natural” concept and aesthetics of “observational documentary films” .
In the 2013 article “The Development of Indigenous People Documentaries in Early
Twenty-first Century Taiwan, and the Concern with Tradition”, I discuss indigenous-themed documentaries made by directors of both indigenous and non-indigenous descent. Some films stress the revival of tradition whereas others seek to challenge and transcend it. Whatever angle or ethnic identity they adopt, they share an awareness of tradition as the fount of thinking and acting. The “indigenous people documentaries” of Taiwan engage in visual dialogue with “tradition” seek to find the optimal way forward for these cultures and these peoples.
In addition, I launched a project in 2007 entitled the Taiwan Ethnography Video and Audio Archive (http://www.ethno.sinica.edu.tw ) with the support of the National Digital Archives Program to digitize audio-video materials gathered in the field from 1984 to 2011 in various research projects conducted by me and organized them into ten subprojects in this digital Archive. They are: Taiwan Aboriginal ceremonial songs and dances, Paiwan ceremonies and legends, Changing ceremonies of the Saisiat, Paiwan nose and mouth flutes, Formosan Aboriginal Song and Dance Troupe collections , Puyuma shamans and ceremonies, Amis ancestral house reconstruction Project, Taiwanese Minnan and Hakka villages, Oral history of veteran-mainlanders, and Ethnographic documentary production. By 2013 The Taiwan Ethnography Video and Audio Archive has completed digitizing 2200 videotapes and films and 200 audiotapes . It is currently the largest collection of ethnographic audio-video in the field of Taiwanese anthropology. It displays the richness and diversity of Taiwanese culture and provides a great resource for researching and understanding the transition from tradition to modernity faced by Taiwan’s ethnic groups.
1) 臺灣農村工業化與社會變遷之研究——欲透過臺灣農村的人類學參與觀察研究，探討 臺灣社會由農業快速轉向工商業的經濟與文化因素。特別著重於農村所形塑的小型工業之特質及其與傳統家庭觀念與婦女地位變遷等的關聯性。農村非正式的小型工業和遊走於法律邊緣的「大家樂」賭戲與祭拜行為皆是 臺灣社會的特殊發展，對這些現象的研究有助於瞭解變遷中的臺灣社會，並與其他社會的發展經驗作比較。
1) A Study on the Rural Industrialization and Social Change in Taiwan-- Hu Tai-li's doctoral dissertation based on anthropological participant observation investigates economic and cultural factors involved in the rapid transformation of Taiwan from an agriculturally-oriented society to an industrially and commercially-oriented one. Special emphasis was placed on the characteristics of small-scale industries that developed in rural area and their relationship with the concept of the traditional family and the shift in the status of women. The research findings are shown in the book XIFURUMEN The Daughter-in-law Entering the Door (1982) and My Mother-in-law's Village: Rural Industrialization and Change in Taiwan(1984). The unoffical small-scale industries in rural communities and later popular "Dajiale Lottery", a gambling game related to the worship of informal gods skirted the law. These activities are special developments found in Taiwan society's informal but very important sector. Study of areas like these would be useful to understanding Taiwan Changing Society and for comparing it with other societies undergoing similar developments.
2) 臺灣「族群」中的外省籍退伍軍人（榮民）之研究——我對於 臺灣外省籍榮民之研究產生興趣，主要因為他們是臺灣社會中一批最新的移民，而且具有相當特殊的屬性。他們一方面長期受「優勢少數」的政軍權力核心所庇護，另一方面在本省人的意象中則屬於「弱勢少 數」。研究結果之一是發現他們在海峽兩岸政治時空環境阻隔下，婚姻、性、家庭無法正常發展，讓他們產生移情作用，對領袖（蔣中正父子）、國家（中華民國）、黨（國民黨）視為一體之延伸，夾雜愛怨交織的「圖騰」情感，榮民的族群關係與認同是研究主題，也是從另一個面向探討 臺灣社會有異於其他社會的特質，以及人類社會「圖騰」情感產生之條件。「石頭夢」民族誌紀錄片是以影像描繪榮民在花蓮河川新生地上的農場所建立新移民社區。透過婚姻關係，外省榮民與本地多族群混融，產生特殊的文化現象。
2) A Study of the Veteran-Mainlanders “Ethnic Group” in Taiwan—Before the lifting of martial law, Hu had already begun studying veteran mainlanders in Taiwan, a very sensitive issue at the time. Retired mainland servicemen in Taiwan, new immigrants to the island, are very unique in that, on the one hand, they have received long-term protection from a power center of the "dominant minority" in government and the military, while on the other, locals regard them as a "powerless minority." The research finds that due to separation in terms of both time and location stemming from the cross-strait political situation, they have been unable to develop normally in terms of marriage, sexual relations, and family. Thus they view leaders (former Presidents Chiang Kai-shek and Chiang Ching-kuo), nation (the ROC), and party (KMT) as an extension of the same “family” entity and their “totemic emotions” are mixed with love and hate. The study on the ethnic relations and identity of veteran-mainlanders provide another aspect from which to explore the special characteristics of Taiwan. Stone Dream, an ethnographic documentary filmed by Hu Tai-Li, employs images to depict a new immigrant community established by veteran mainlanders on agricultural land reclaimed from a river in the Hualien area. Through marriage with women from various local ethnic groups, veteran mainlanders have produced an ethnic intermixing that has resulted unique cultural phenomena.
3) 臺灣原住民族祭儀歌舞之研究——原住民族祭儀歌舞中蘊含了許多文化密碼有待仔細解讀。我個人對祭儀歌舞的文本（歌詞與禱詞 ）特別感興趣。記錄、翻譯文本之餘，再探求文本與祭儀歌舞動作間的關係與更深層的文化意義。我在此所說的祭儀「文本」主要是指祭儀中代代相傳固定不易變更的神聖祭儀語言包括歌詞。我以賽夏族的矮人祭與排灣族的五年祭的「文本」為記錄重點，並置於動態的祭儀展演脈絡中觀察，以發掘文化的深層意義。例如發現了存在於賽夏文化中的「疊影」現象，影響賽夏人文化記憶之形塑。另外在排灣族我針對「活化文本」亦即祭儀語言「展演」的整體情境作詳細的描述分析，藉此重新檢視排灣族一些極為根本而重要的概念，對學者過去的理解有所修正。我企圖超脫結構功能的論述進入詮釋的領域，亦即進入原住民更深邃的關於生命意義的心理世界。
4)「文化展演」的研究與民族誌紀錄片的攝製——「文化展演」（cultural performance）涉及「文化呈現」（cultural presentation）與「社會實踐」（social practice）的問題。我在文字方面的成果主要集結於《文化展演與臺灣原住民》一書（2003，聯經出版社出版）。通常人類學者一提到「文化展演」，就會聯想起包含許多視聽動感元素的祭儀樂舞，而祭儀樂舞的內容與形式分析便成為研究「文化展演」的學者之最愛。但我覺得人類學的「文化展演」概念如只運用於儀式的展演與類比未免太狹隘了，極可能將所研究社會對於「真實」與「展演」的區分掩蓋了。在這本書中所談的「文化展演」雖然涵蓋 臺灣原住民社會的祭儀樂舞，可是「文化展演」的概念並不限於原住民部落實際的祭儀樂舞展演，還包括其他在視聽方面表現突出的文化活動，特別是以視聽呈現為主體的民族誌紀錄片，以及原住民祭儀歌舞的舞 臺化展演。文化展演的內容與形式一方面是人類學研究和分析的對象；另方面則是透過文化展演，人類學知識得以傳播與實踐。我透過人類學實踐式的參與，從「展演事件」中發現不同的文化對展演的真實有不同的詮釋並賦予不同的框架。例如我在賽夏族經驗到真實與展演、我群與他群界線模糊的「交融性」文化真實，在排灣族則經歷到界線清晰的「區隔性」文化真實。我認為任何對社會實踐有興趣者必須致力於「文化真實」的探索，以認清所處的「社會實踐」之情境。影像方面的成果主要為十六釐米民族誌紀錄片的攝製，已完成「神祖之靈歸來」（Return of Gods and Ancestors）、「矮人祭之歌」（Songs of Pasta'ay）、「蘭嶼觀點」（Voices of Orchid Island）、「穿過婆家村」（Passing Through My Mother-in-law's Village）、「愛戀排灣笛」（Sounds of Love and Sorrow）、「石頭夢」等中英文版本。我強調民族誌電影要與被攝者與觀眾作最直接與廣泛的交流，從實踐中達到文化反思的功效。例如從「蘭嶼觀點」一片可以發現「多重聲音」（multi-voices）彼此激盪，展現豐富多樣的詮釋與反思。在「穿過婆家村」紀錄片中我企圖在「自己人」（insider）與外人（outsider） 間求取平衡，呈現出人類學者與被研究者間的複雜情愫，不斷在emic主觀投入與 etic 保持客觀的角色中轉換， 探討臺灣人及臺灣社會以何種態度面對變遷、 在劇烈變遷中有哪些基礎性、儀式性的思想行為是比較不容易變的 ， 因而成為臺灣社會流動前進的基調。
5）排灣族鼻笛、口笛的研究——除了「愛戀排灣笛」民族誌紀錄片，我在排灣笛方面的文字研究成果主要集結於：「排灣族的鼻笛與口笛」一書，連同CD錄音帶與錄影帶及錄影光碟片由國立傳統藝術中心籌備處出版（2001）。在本書中我主要的貢獻在於先透過地毯式的搜尋，調查訪問了現今還會吹奏排灣鼻笛、口笛者，因而揭示了排灣笛的不同傳承系統與意涵、探討雙管鼻笛產生的原因，並記錄族群歷史與個人生命經歷和特殊樂器之間的關連，為從排灣笛擴展到排灣族情感與美感的研究奠基。
6）情感、情緒與文化的研究──近期我與許木柱、葉光輝共同編輯了「情感、情緒與文化： 臺灣社會的文化心理研究」一書（2002），在導論中我指出此研究興趣的發酵，與國際人類學與心理學界這些年來的一些發展趨勢緊密相連。「情感／情緒」研究在西方學界，並不是一開始就和文化的研究掛鉤。早先心理學研究情感／情緒（emotions）時，主要將emotions置於個人化的心理生理層面，而非社會的與象徵的範疇。西方的情緒身心論（psychobiological paradigms of emotion）為經驗的二分法所支持，在強烈的二元思考下，將情緒置於自然（nature）的領域，認為是較不受思想與文化習俗控制的生理過程。心理學界新近發展的文化心理學則以情緒與文化為研究主題，著重於探索形塑情感、情緒的文化因素，且不容情地對先前的情緒身心論作出批判。
人類學界雖然在較早期的文化與人格研究中便對情感／情緒現象有相當的碰觸，但一直到1970與1980年代詮釋人類學（interpretive anthropology）興起後，才開始產生越來越多具有深度的民族誌，探討非西方文化中情感、情緒的意涵，在理論及文化詮釋上都獲致前所未有的豐碩成果，使得情感、情緒研究進入人類學的主流。在新的情感、情緒與文化研究趨勢下，研究者開始反省過去西方學術界二元化思考的缺陷，而思有所突破。在民族誌資料支持下，新的理論趨向認知到思想不會離開情感、情緒而獨立存在；而情感、情緒是由文化所形塑，也不會離開思想而獨立）。人類學者Catherine Lutz等人的 emotion研究是文化建構論，亦即認為情感、情緒的意義基本上是由特殊的文化體系、特殊的社會與物質環境所建構。文化建構論是大多數情感、情緒民族誌的基調。近年雖然出現檢討與批判文化建構論的文章，但尚無法動搖文化建構論者多年來在堅實民族誌基礎上所建立的論述。
在此書中我發表「笛的哀思：排灣族情感與美感初探」一文。我從臺灣排灣族較固定不變的聲音模式例如笛聲出發，發掘哀思情感（tarimuzau / mapaura 或 paurauran）是排灣族人最喜愛、最高度認知的情感（hypercognized emotions），或說是由愛而產生的戀戀不捨、縈繞不去的情感。排灣族的悲傷情感／情緒由「胸」發出，但一定牽動「頭」的思緒，產生思念之情。因此排灣族的「胸」與「頭」、哀傷與思念、情感與思想是分不開的，無形中提供了一個「情思文化」的例證，顯示過去西方學界將情感與思想二分的不當。另外，作者還發現排灣族的哀思情感與遠古、孤寂、憐憫、情愛、美麗、驚異等意涵相連，也是一種美感（samiring）經驗。本文並提出哀思的情感與美感極可能是排灣文化中最具解釋力與涵蓋性最大的「正向」概念，是排灣文化得以延續的主因。如果能有更多資料支持，在排灣族我們或許可以將情感／情緒置於比文化建構論更重要的地位。
排灣笛研究之後，我企圖從排灣族的傳說著手，探討排灣族的情感與文化特質。在最近發表的「排灣族虛構傳說的真實」一文中，我將在排灣古樓村採集的虛構傳說（mirimiringan）與日據時代研究者收集的排灣族傳說（例如小川尚義、淺井惠倫的「原語による臺灣高砂族傳說集」；小林保祥著、松澤員子編、謝荔譯的「排灣傳說集」）作比較，以發掘與分析其中的情感與文化意涵。
我發現排灣族的虛構傳說在臺灣原住民的傳說中非常突出，因其中有特別豐富的驚訝、愛戀、同情、哀傷等情感和美感。排灣族人大都認為最好聽的虛構傳說會令人聽了感動落淚並驚嘆不已。在虛構傳說中創造者naqemati是一切神蹟的來源，而在現實世界中排灣族人也一直透過祭儀向創造者祈求、哭求、吟訴。他們相信生命是創造者賜與的，人的命運也由創造者安排。虛構傳說按照排灣族人的願望，其中人物向創造者祈求後，便會發生許多奇蹟。與真實世界中發生的事情不同的是：在虛構傳說中人死可以復生，嬰兒可以立即成人。創造者在排灣族人的意象中是很會悲憫人的，尤其會同情淪為孤兒、喪失權位的頭目家人，讓他們顯現威能。因此，排灣族的虛構傳說中充滿了創造者很有同情心（rhupaurauran ）地應允世人祈求而產生的神蹟。透過虛構傳說的代代傳述，不但反映而且更加塑模了排灣族人的真實情感。/ rhupenauran /semeturhuj
虛構傳說中對於俊男美女的形容都和太陽光有關。排灣族人常將創造者（naqemati）與太陽（qadau）連在一起，稱為qadau a naqemati。身為創造者長子系統的頭目，必定具有如同太陽的美光。在排灣族的真實世界中頭目的盛裝包括琉璃珠飾都有顯著的太陽圖紋和如同彩虹的色彩。虛構傳說中顯現的是排灣族與創造者意象相連的真實美感。從排灣族的虛構傳說來看，我們可以發現：虛構如同放大鏡，將排灣族特別重視的情感、美感與價值觀加以放大，雖然形象有所誇張失真，但卻更加凸顯該文化所強調的某些真實情感、美感與價值觀。透過虛構，我們更接近真實。
此外，我將攝製「愛戀排灣笛」影片的經驗與其他排灣族專業和兼業錄影師的經驗相驗證之後，發現排灣族人面對攝影機鏡頭時表現得特別的「自然」，並希望以盛裝影像留給後代作為哀思的紀念。我於是發表了「排灣影像的美學」和 "The Camera is Working: Paiwan Aesthetics and Performances in Taiwan."等文章，指出這樣的現象係受到排灣傳統所強調之如同百步蛇與太陽的紋飾的情感與美感的影響。