Her work examines the connections between national politics and intimate life, with particular attention to the place of state power and citizenship in gender identities and intimate relationships. She is the author of Intimate Politics: Marriage, the Market, and State Power in Southeastern China (Harvard, 2006) and co-editor of Wives, Husbands, and Lovers: Marriage and Sexuality in Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Urban China (Stanford, 2014). Her current project studies the citizenship and sovereignty challenges posed by marital migration from China to Taiwan. She is completing a book manuscript tentatively titled, Exceptional States: Chinese Marriage Immigrants and the Challenges of Taiwanese Sovereignty.