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. 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. 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. 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.

An internationally acclaimed linguist, Professor William S-Y. Wang has had a distinguished career both in Hong Kong and abroad. In addition to formulating the theory of lexical diffusion, his academic interests have included experimental phonetic studies, language simulation and modeling and, more recently, aging and language. In honor of Prof. Wang's 90th birthday, his colleagues and friends from around the world have contributed more than 30 articles for a two-volume commemorative Festschrift. The contents of this English volume include diachronic, synchronic, and interdisciplinary linguistic studies from authors across Asia and in the United States. Focusing mainly on the Chinese language, topics include the evolution of language, the relationship between language and music, and the functions and processes of the brain involved in language production. Written by and for seasoned language researchers, this Festschrift will also appeal to students of Chinese linguistics and readers with an interest in Chinese culture, history, and neurology.