Inspirations from a Lofty Mountain— Festschrift in Honor of Professor William S-Y. Wang on his 90th Birthday

Gang PENG is a professor at The Hong Kong Polytechnic University. He received his bachelor’s in mathematics and master’s in computer science from Nankai University in Tianjin, and a doctorate in language engineering from the City University of Hong Kong. Before he joined the Department of Chinese and Bilingual Studies at The Hong Kong Polytechnic University in 2016, he worked at City University of Hong Kong, University of Washington, The University of Hong Kong, and The Chinese University of Hong Kong.  

His central research focus is to investigate how language is represented and processed in the human brain, and how different cultures, reflected in their languages, shape perception differently. He adopts a broad multidisciplinary perspective for the study of language and the brain, with primary focus on the two most distinct features of Chinese language, i.e., lexical tones and logographic script. His research receives support from a number of competitive grants, including a prestigious fellowship award from the Research Grants Council in Hong Kong (RFS2122-5H01). He has published extensively in top journals such as The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, Autism, and Child Development. 

Jiangping KONG is a professor in the Department of Chinese Language and Literature at Peking University and director of the Peking University Linguistics Laboratory, a key liberal arts laboratory of the Chinese Ministry of Education. He is president of the Chinese Phonetics Society and serves as associate editor-in-chief of the Journal of Chinese Phonetics. He received a master’s degree in linguistics from the Graduate School of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences and a doctorate in language engineering from the City University of Hong Kong. 

His main research interests are phonetics and linguistics of Chinese languages, language phonation types, language perception and cognition, phonemic load, the evolution of language contact and convergence, Chinese sound culture, and the formation of Chinese language communities. 

Zhongwei SHEN is a professor emeritus at University of Massachusetts Amherst. He received his bachelor’s from Fudan University in Shanghai, and master’s and doctoral degrees in linguistics from the University of California, Berkeley. He joined the faculty at University of Massachusetts Amherst in 1995. His research interest includes the mechanism of sound change, the early history of Mandarin by using materials written in the Khitan script, the Jurchen script, the hP’ags-pa script, and the Persian script. He is also interested in various aspects of Chinese dialectology.  

The books he has published include A Phonological History of Chinese, Menggu Ziyun Jijiao (蒙古字韻集校), Studies on the Menggu Ziyun (蒙古字韻研究), and Exploring the Dynamic Aspect of Sound Change. The books he has edited and co-edited include Wangmen Qiuxue Ji (王門求學記), Diachronic Studies of the Wu Dialect Studies, Synchronic Studies of the Wu Dialect Studies, The Joy of Linguistic Research II, A Festschrift in Honor of Prof. William S-Y. Wang on his 75th Birthday, The Joy of Linguistic Research, and A Festschrift in Honor of Prof. William S-Y. Wang on his 70th Birthday.  

Feng WANG is a professor at Peking University. He received his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Peking University and a doctorate in linguistics from the City University of Hong Kong. He joined the faculty at Peking University in 2006. His research interest includes historical phonology, Sino-Tibetan comparative studies, Chinese dialectology, language contact, and the Bai language. 

The books he has published include Baiyu Fangyan Fasheng de Bianyi yu Yanhua (白語方言發聲的變異與演化, co-authored with Xuan Li and Xiaofang Zhang), Hanzang Yuyan Bijiao de Fangfa yu Shijian (漢藏語言比較的方法與實踐), Yuyan Jiechu yu Yuyan Bijiao (語言接觸與語言比較), and Comparison of Languages in Contact. The books he has edited and co-edited include Wangmen Qiuxue Ji (王門求學記), Festschrift in Honor of Prof. William S-Y. Wang on His 85th Birthday, and Hongmen Duihua (黌門對話).