Dr Shzr Tan

Shzr Ee Tan is a lecturer at Royal Holloway, University of London, currently researching musical activities on new media platforms in overseas Chinese communities. Her research touches on phenomena ranging from viral videos to politico-musical activism on theinternet. Shzr Ee completed her PhD at the School of Oriental and African Studies, studying Amis aboriginal folksong of Taiwan in interacting contexts of the village, the cultural troupe, the popular music industry and Christian missionisation. Her other interests include music and gender, music and politics, urban ethnomusicology and connections between music and food cultures. She has published on music, media and politics in Singapore and in the Chinese diaspora, as well as on aboriginal song in Taiwan.

Shzr Ee currently teaches Music, Ethnomusicology and Performance modules in undergraduate and postgraduate courses at Royal Holloway. Courses she has taught/ will be teaching include: Music, Power and Politics; Topics in World Music, Contemporary Debates in Music, Music and Gender, Practical Performance, Musics of China, Practical Musicianship, Creative Ensemble Performance, Korean Drumming and Documenting Performance.

Shzr Ee is also an active musician with a background in classical piano, Korean percussion, tango/Balkan accordion, Chinese and Okinawan lutes (sanxian and sanshin) and the Chinese fiddle (erhu). She is a member of several ensembles based in London, including a Korean drumming ensemble, a jazz-improv quartet, a tango band and a Chinese silk and bamboo ensemble. Some of the venues in which she has appeared include the South Bank, the British Museum, the Maritime Museum, the Truman Brewery and The Arts House (Singapore). Shzr Ee also has experience as a print journalist in Asia, having worked for an extensive period of time as an arts correspondent for The Straits Times in Singapore, and thereafter for international magazines and newspapers on a freelance basis. She continues to contribute columns on music, film and culture to various media.

Shzr Ee is engaged in arts and cultural advocacy in East Asia, having collaborated on projects with various arts and educational bodies in Singapore. She was most recently involved in a film project, Civic Life, sponsored by the British Council and currently screening at the National Museum in Singapore as part of a permanent installation. As of 2010, she also began contributing to the Singapore Arts Festival as a Dramaturg.