About Me
My name is Neng Thao, 𖬀𖬶𖬬 𖬒𖬲𖬟𖬰, and I am a practitioner and scholar of Hmong musical surrogate languages (MSL). I graduated from Harvard with my bachelor's degree in Human Developmental and Regenerative Biology and was awarded a Fulbright Research Grant in linguistics, which I completed in 2023. Currently, I am collaborating with Laura McPherson at Dartmouth, researching how harmonic overtones encode lexical tone on the ncas (jaw harp).
I am interested in the larger implications of music and language cognition. What can multimodal neuroimaging tell us about how the brain's language network processes and sequences the sounds of musical surrogate speech? Can developing noisy channel models of MSL comprehension have larger application in speech recognition with artificial intelligence and machine learning? And how can we adjust multiple memory system frameworks to learn about the role language and repetition play in music memorization? As a developmental and regenerative biologist, my longterm research goal is to compare homologous neural circuits responsible for music/speech across species and to induce these circuits in non-vocal species.
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My research has allowed me to travel to over 120 different countries and be invited to speak at over 100 universities, conferences, and organizations all around the world. I am fluent in two dialects of Hmong and can "speak" several musical surrogate languages. I am also a Hmong kwv txhiaj/lug txaj singer, which are vocal genres of music that belong to different linguistic registers on the surrogate-to-spoken language spectrum.
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Aside from research, I have many passion projects. As a surrogate language musician, I run a small Hmong instrument shop. In 2021, I founded Gaur, the first project dedicated to reclaiming Hmong antiques; I have since amassed the largest collection of antique Hmong flintlocks in the world. I wrote, illustrated, and published the first book to explain the big bang theory to preschoolers, Georgia's Telescope. I have made three documentaries and won several art awards including a Blue Chair Film Festival grant, a DANG! grant, and a Doodle4Google finalist award. In 2019, I was one of five international recipients of the Hmong American Partnership Community Impact Award—given to those recognized as "A changemaker who is advancing the Hmong community."
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Contact me at now@nengthao.com or at the social media links here:
Hmong Bowyer – 𖬑𖬰𖬯𖬵 𖬀𖬲𖬩 𖬌𖬣𖬵
Txua Hneev Hmoob (HMong Bowyer) is a short documentary and self-filmed study into the craft of traditional bowmaking. This film shows the intricate process, from the shaping of the prod, to the heat activating of the iron nitrate stain, to the actual harvesting of a Wisconsin whitetail deer. The Hmong relationship with the natural world is not only displayed through the detailed wood, bamboo, and iron-working processes, but also notably through the traditional Hmong ritual of laig tim tswv teb chaws, performed before the hunt—the traditional Hmong practice of sharing a meal with the land's guardian spirits before asking them for guidance and protection during a hunt. Watch this film below.
Let's work together
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7+ years of full-time world travel
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400+ online videos created
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80,000+ followers
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50+ million views
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100+ countries traveled
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50+ keynotes delivered
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