Her research field is modern China, focusing on women’s history and feminism, journal studies, film history and sport culture. 

Dr. Ma has published three monographs:

《從閨閣到報館：中國早期婦女報刊中的女性公共話語, 1898–1937》(Beyond the Boudoir: The Emergence of Female Public Discourse in Chinese Women’s Press, 1898-1937. The Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2025); No. 3 Best-Sellers of the press at 2025 Hong Kong Book Exhibition );

https://cup.cuhk.edu.hk/CUHKP/WomenJournalistsandFeminisminChina

Colonial Tactics and Everyday Life: Film Workers at Manchuria Film Association (University of Wisconsin Press, 2023, Winner of 2024 Best Scholarly Publication Award of Association of Chinese Professors of Social Sciences in the United States); 

https://uwpress.wisc.edu/Books/C/Colonial-Tactics-and-Everyday-Life

Women Journalism and Feminism in China, 1898-1937 (Cambria Press, 2010).

https://www.cambriapress.com/pub.cfm?bid=364

Dr. Ma has also authored twenty-three articles/chapters and two dozens of book reviews. 

Her current research is on women athletes and the sport culture in socialist China.