My main research interests are in the following areas:

- Voice Quality

Voice quality is an important cue in many sound contrasts in many languages. My research focuses on falsetto, or tense voice, which is common in Xiang Chinese. I have conducted relevant acoustic description and perception experiments.

- Perception and Production of Lexical Tone

The perception and production of tones in different languages involve different cue weighting. In my research about the Changsha dialect and Changsha Plastic Mandarin, Tone 4 has cues such as F0 height, F0 contour, and voice quality. Different people use different strategies for it, and even individuals with similar language backgrounds may use cues differently. I also have found a complex relationship between perception and production.

- Changsha Plastic Mandarin

Changsha Plastic Mandarin is a new dialect variety that emerges with the promotion of Standard Mandarin and the loss of the Changsha dialect. In short, Changsha Plastic Mandarin is a variant of Mandarin influenced by the Changsha dialect, mainly used by the younger generation in Changsha. In actual communication, Changsha Plastic Mandarin and Standard Mandarin are more prone to mutual interference, making Changsha Plastic Mandarin extremely special.
In my research, I found that behind the seemingly same phonetic features of Changsha Plastic Mandarin and Changsha dialect, there are different processing mechanisms. The emergence and usage of such a new variety provide a good opportunity to understand language evaluation and multidialectalism.