Jointly organized by the International Association of Chinese Linguistics (IACL), Faculty of Humanities (FH) and Department of Chinese and Bilingual Studies (CBS) of PolyU, the 20th Annual Conference of the International Association of Chinese Linguistics was held on the PolyU campus from 29 to 31 August. 

The conference was one of the most significant annual events for scholarly exchanges among Chinese linguists and other linguistic communities around the world. The hosting countries in the past years included the United States, the Netherlands, France, Australia and Singapore. Marking its 20th anniversary, the IACL annual conference was held at PolyU in Hong Kong. It was also an event organized by FH and CBS in celebration of PolyU’s 75th anniversary.

Over 300 scholars from around the world attended the opening ceremony.  Officiating guests included Prof. Alex Wai, PolyU Vice President (Research Development), and Prof. Audrey Li, IACL President 2011-12. 

The three-day conference included four keynote speeches, IACL presidential speeches, 150 paper presentations, YSA awardee homecoming talks and YSA finalist presentations from around the world, four satellite workshops, and a book exhibit with six major local and international publishers.