Group photo at the IACL-29
From May 27th to 29th, 2023, the 29th Annual Conference of the International Association of Chinese Linguistics (IACL‐29), hosted by the University International College of Macau University of Science and Technology, was successfully held at Macau University of Science and Technology (MUST). This year's annual conference was financially sponsored by the Center for Language Education and Cooperation, the M.U.S.T. Foundation, the International Association of Chinese Linguistics (IACL), and the Eurasia Foundation from Asia. It was also generously supported by the Associação da Ciência Linguística de Macau, Correios e Telecomunicações de Macau, and Wynn Macau Limited.
The IACL is the only worldwide academic organization that studies Chinese language and linguistics. This year's annual conference was the first conference held in Macau and the first held offline since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. More than 400 experts, scholars, and Chinese linguists from the Greater China region (i.e. mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan), Japan, South Korea, the United States, Italy, France, Germany, Spain, and other areas/countries participated in the conference.
The opening ceremony of the annual conference was held on the morning of May 27. The guests attending the opening ceremony of the annual meeting included Mr. Xu Zhiping, Deputy Director of the Department of Education and Youth Affairs of the Liaison Office of the Central People’s Government in the Macao S.A.R., Mr. Wang Gang, Director of the Macao Office of the Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Straits, Professor Takashi Takekoshi, President of the International Association of Chinese Linguistics, Chair Professor Joseph Hun-wei Lee, President of Macau University of Science and Technology, and Ms. Linda Chen, President and Vice Chairman of the Board Wynn Macau, Limited and University Council Member of Macau University of Science and Technology. Other guests included leaders and representatives from government agencies, enterprises, universities, societies, and media. At the opening ceremony, Chair Professor Joseph Hun-wei Lee, Director Wang Gang, and Professor Takashi Takekoshi delivered speeches respectively.
The conference featured 12 keynote speeches and 34 invited speeches given by heavyweight scholars including academicians of the European Academy of Sciences and Academia Sinica in Taipei. The keynote speakers included (in speaking order) Professors Alain Peyraube from the French National Center for Scientific Research, Li Ping from Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Li Yuming from Beijing Language and Culture University, Liu Danqing from Shenzhen University/Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Hu Jianhua from Institute of Linguistics, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Takashi Takekoshi from Kobe University of Foreign Studies in Japan, Zhao Yang from Peking University, Li Yafei from University of Wisconsin-Madison, Louise McNally from Pompeu Fabra University in Spain, Pan Haihua from Chinese University of Hong Kong, Walter Bisang from University of Mainz in Germany, and William S-Y. Wang from Hong Kong Polytechnic University.
The conference also featured more than 200 regular reports in 53 sessions. A total of 620 submissions were received at this year's annual conference, and 228 were finally accepted after anonymous review. The content covers the latest research related to Chinese and other languages in China, involving phonetics, phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics, pragmatics, Chinese dialects, lexicology, philology, language acquisition, language typology, historical linguistics, psycholinguistics, neurolinguistics, sociolinguistics, and many other core fields of linguistics and interdisciplinary studies. The conference also held the final round of the "Young Scholar Award" competition. A total of 52 papers were received for the competition, and four young scholars, Chen Yue, Tian Xiaomeng, Weng Linjia, and Zhang Yuting, were selected as finalists after a rigorous anonymous review. However, no winner was selected after the final competition and deliberations by the judging committee, and the "Young Scholar Award" went unrewarded for this year.
At the closing ceremony and general membership meeting of the Association held on the afternoon of May 29, Professor Peppina Po-lun Lee, the IACL Executive Secretary, announced the election results of the new IACL executive members: Professor Pan Haihua (Chinese University of Hong Kong) was elected as the Vice President of the Association; Edith Aldridge (Institute of Linguistics, Academia Sinica, Taipei), Bianca Basciano (University of Venice, Italy), Peggy Mok (Chinese University of Hong Kong), Ran Qibin (Nankai University), Youn-Ok Kang (Myongji University, South Korea), Yang Chunsheng (University of Connecticut, USA), and Zhang Shengkai (Shizuoka University, Japan) were elected as the new board members. Subsequently, Professor Takashi Takegoshi, President of the Association, announced the results of the "Young Scholar Award" competition at the annual meeting, and presented the finalist awards to the four young scholars. Professor Takashi Takegoshi also announced the decision of the Association to establish a Ph.D. Thesis Fellowship, the application guidelines of which will be published on the IACL website.
According to the IACL constitution, the current Vice President, Professor Shi Feng of Nankai University took over as the President. The new President delivered an inauguration speech and expressed his heartfelt thanks to the organizers of the annual conference and the University International College of M.U.S.T. Finally, the conference announced that the next (30th) annual conference of the IACL will be held at Yonsei University in South Korea from May 24 to 26, 2024.
This annual conference was the largest Chinese linguistics event in the history of Macau, greatly enhancing the reputation and influence of M.U.S.T. on a global scale. It also strengthened the exchanges and cooperation between M.U.S.T. and world-class universities and scholars, helping to accelerate the internationalization process of M.U.S.T. It also played an extremely important role in the development of linguistic research and language education in Macau, the entire Greater Bay Area, and the Greater China region.
Prof. Takashi Takekoshi (second from right), Prof. Zhang Hongming (first from right), and Prof. Shi Feng (first from left) presenting finalist awards to young scholars
