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Biography

I am a Ph.D. candidate in Music at the University of Pennsylvania, specializing in (ethno)musicology and sound studies. I am a Benjamin Franklin Fellow (2018-2022, 2023-2024), a Tarnopol Graduate Fellow (2020-2021), and a Price Lab Andrew W. Mellon Mid-doctoral Fellow in Digital Humanities (2022-2023), currently based in Philadelphia and Hong Kong. I avidly ruminate on the theoretical entanglements of (un)sounding matters, auralities, power, and the political. Working across sound studies, political theories, and matters of Hong Kong, I experiment with intermedial methods and field materials to craft spaces for sensory experience. I am completing a hybrid-mode dissertation entitled "Sounding Freedom: Political Aurality and Sound Acts in Hong Kong (Post-)Protest Spaces" with my advisor, Professor Jairo Moreno. I am also interested in studying performed vocalities in singing and everyday living and the acoustemological mode of listening, particularly in the Sinophone world and Asian cultures.

 

Before joining Penn Music, I worked as a Teaching Assistant (School of Humanities, Music) from Fall 2014 to Spring 2018 at the University of Hong Kong (HKU). I completed a Master of Philosophy degree in musicology with a thesis entitled “Sound and Nonviolence: Music as Political Action in Hong Kong” in 2017. In recognition of my studies and research, HKU awarded me the Rayson Huang Scholarship in Music twice in 2012 (undergraduate) and 2017 (postgraduate), respectively.

 

As a global citizen and a young intellect in sonic contestation, I always maintain one belief: music and musicology come with a social obligation. This belief motivated me to pursue doctoral studies and an academic career in music/sound studies. Hong Kong’s Umbrella Movement in 2014 was a turning point in my life. As this event unfolded, I transformed from a fledgling singer-songwriter (who won The Best Music Video Award from Sony Music Entertainment (Hong Kong) in December 2013) into a junior music/sound scholar working on sonic contestation. This metamorphosis reflects and builds upon my academic mission and personal belief—that is, to be a candid sound scholar.

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黎氏現時為賓夕法尼亞大學哲學博士候選人、班傑明·富蘭克林學人(2018-2022, 2023-2024) ,  塔爾諾波爾學人(2020-2021) 及 安德鲁·威廉·梅隆數位人文學博士中期學人(2022-2023)，主修(人類學)音樂學，現居於美國費城及香港。研究方向圍繞聲音及音樂研究、聲音與環境空間、社運和抗議聲音及音樂、表演或呈現研究、香港抗爭及文化、公共音樂學、以及 有關聲音和音樂、聆聽、環境空間、人類行為及舉動、和人體及思考在哲學理論中的關係。黎氏亦熱衷以聲音藝術及影像，展示其創新前衛思維及呈現特定聲音空間實況。黎氏師承海羅．莫蘭盧教授，她正完成其博士論文題目「自由的聲音：香港(後)抗爭空間的政治聆聽和聲音行動」。除此之外，黎氏同時醉心於研究人聲應用及表現，例如唱歌及日常生活之中的話語。黎氏主要研究地域為香港、亞洲文化、及使用中文作言語表達的本土及流散社群。

 

黎氏於2014至2018年獲香港大學(人文學院, 音樂系)聘任為教學助理，並於2017年修畢哲學碩士(音樂學)，研究題目為「聲音與非暴力：香港社運的音樂為政治行為」。黎氏於2012年及2017年分別獲香港大學頒發黃麗松獎學金，以表揚其傑出成績。

 

黎氏認為音樂與音樂學並不能與社會責任分割。這個想法促使她選擇了學術及音樂研究工作。2014年，香港的雨傘運動成為黎氏的轉捩點，她暫放下唱作人的志願，加入學術界成為音樂研究員，專門研究抗爭聲音及音樂。這個蛻變反映了黎氏在學術及對生命的堅持和抱負：成為一個真誠的聲音研究學者。

 

 

 

Dissertation Project

 

"Sounding Freedom: Political Aurality and Sound Acts in Hong Kong (Post-)Protest Spaces."

*Awarded the 2023 21st Century Fellowship, The Society for Ethnomusicology.

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Publications

 

"'Happy Birthday to You': Music as Nonviolent Weapon in the Umbrella Movement." Hong Kong Studies 1, no. 1 (March, 2018): 66-82.

*The article was shortlisted as one of the eight finalist works for the IBP Best Article on Global Hong Kong Studies in Humanities 2021.

 

 

Selected Academic Presentations

 

“Making Sense of the ‘Nonsense’: Localisation of ‘Happy Birthday to You’ in the Umbrella Movement.” Joint Forum and East Asian Research Seminar for Graduate Students in Musicology on Music and Mobility, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan, May 5-7, 2016.

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"Sonic Activism Against the Tear Gas: Hongkonger’s Raging Roars and Sound Acts." 

  • Harvard Graduate Music Forum Conference 2020, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, U.S.A., February 7-8, 2020.

  • Sounding Spaces, 7th Biennial Yale Graduate Music Symposium, Yale University, New Haven, CT, U.S.A., February 28-29, 2020.

  • CUNY Graduate Students in Music Conference, City University of New York, New York City, NY, U.S.A., March 19-20, 2021. Virtual.

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“'I Heard You Through the Tear Gas!': Sound Acts in the 2019–20 Hong Kong Protests."

  • The Society for Ethnomusicology, the 65th Annual Meeting, Virtual, October 30, 2020.

​       *Awarded The 2021 Charles Seeger Prize, Honorable Mention for Outstanding Student Paper, The Society for Ethnomusicology.

  • American Musicological Society, the 86th Annual Meeting, Virtual, November 14, 2020.

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"Acoustic Protest in Malls: Echoing Hong Kong’s New Economic Relations to Politics and Values."

  • Hong Kong Studies Annual Conference. 2020 Hong Kong Studies Research School, Virtual/The Education University of Hong Kong, December 10, 2020.

  • Hong Kong in the Age of Global Crisis, Society of Hong Kong Studies Annual Conference 2021, Virtual/Hong Kong, June 25-26, 2021.

  • The East Asia Regional Association of International Musicological Society (IMSEA), Virtual Conference for Graduate Students and Early Career Scholars 2021, October 23-24, 2021.

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“Soundwalking Hong Kong, Now and Then: Infrastructural Acoustic vs Counter-infrastructural Acoustics.” Instruments, Interfaces, Infrastructures: An Interdisciplinary Conference on Musical Media, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, U.S.A., May 11-13, 2023.

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“Sounding Authoritarianism in Hong Kong: The Muted Acoustics of Great George Street.” The Society for Ethnomusicology, the 68th Annual Meeting, Ottawa, Canada, October 19-22, 2023.

 

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Academic Intermedial Projects

 

Sound installations, ethnographic documentaries, virtual reality projects, sound poems

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Performance

 

Singing (Popular: R&B, pop; Classical: mezzo-soprano, E3 to C6)

Acoustic Guitar

Gong Kebyar (Balinese Gamelan Ensemble)

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Published on: 1 June 2019

Last update: 30 January 2024

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