When she was writing her master's thesis, Lin first wanted to study "the gentry and literati in Taiwan during the Qing Dynasty." She wanted to understand the connection between family backgrounds and those who passed the civil service examination in the late Qing Dynasty. But in the process of tracking down sources for her research, she found some Chinese customs files that changed the direction of her lifetime's research.
撰寫碩士論文階段，林滿紅先是選定「清代台灣士紳研究」為題，試圖瞭解清末台灣「家庭背景」與「科舉登科」之間的關係，但在追索資料過程中，她進一步找到了「中國海關檔案」，自此改變了一生的研究方向。