My research interest stems from the growing up experience in a fisherman’s family. I was interested in how occupation influences people’s daily life, their family and then formulates society. Thus, I wrote the first thesis: Fishermen in Hard Times: Ethnography of Work for the Offshore Fishery in Nanfang’ao Harbor in 2010. In the thesis, I spell out how fishermen construct self identity by using ‘hai-lo’ fishing technique as a cardinal framework. Moreover, fishermen can indicate others’ hometown via what ‘hai-lo’ is utilized. Besides, taking ‘hai-lo’ as an analytical framework, I argue the transformation of fishing techniques (i.e. from a long line hooking to netting for mackerel fishery) changed the production system on vessels from shares to salary.

My recent work concern why semi-official and semi-autonomous fishery associations play the important role among fisheries, and how fishery they confront challenges, especially climate change, decreasing productivity, globalization of seafood market, and cross boarder governance on production end. From above concern, I conducted one year fieldwork in the Nanfang’ao Harbor in 2017-8, taking the most productive fishery of Taiwan– mackerel fishery–as the case. From mackerel case, I will illustrate the marine fishery of Taiwan in the latecomer context by elaborating the colonial history of Taiwan, and discuss how the historical aspect keeps shaping fishermen’s daily life as well as the local governance on fishery in Taiwan. And further, I will articulate the reproduction of unequal relationship is still ongoing nowadays.