Hundreds of scholars of Chinese language and culture will gather at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, long a center for Chinese studies, on May 5 and May 6 for a pair of prestigious international conferences.
It will be the 26th annual meeting for the International Association of Chinese Linguistics and the 20th International Conference on Chinese Language and Culture. Scholars from all over the world are expected to attend.
“UW-Madison has been one of the most important centers for Chinese studies for several decades,” said Hongming Zhang, a professor of Asian languages and cultures on campus and organizer of the conferences.
It is one of only 17 U.S. universities to offer bachelor’s and master’s degrees and doctorates in Chinese studies, Zhang said. “Chinese language has a long history on this campus.”
UW-Madison, in fact, hosted the linguistics conference in 1995 and Zhang later was secretary of the association for 14 years.
UW-Madison established a major in Chinese language in 1962, said Rania Huntington, also a professor in the Department of Asian Languages and China.