On October 1, 2003 the Li Fang-Kuei Society for Chinese Linguistics was founded with the primary goal of promoting and advancing academic and scholarly activities in the areas of Chinese descriptive, comparative, and historical dialectology in particular, and in Chinese historical linguistics and Sino-Tibetan linguistics in general. In pursuit of this goal, the Society’s planned activities include supporting (1) research subsidies for scholars and students in Chinese linguistics, including grants in support of linguistic field work and travel grants for graduate students wishing to attend conferences connected with the field; (2) scholarships for graduate students and postdoctoral fellowships for young scholars in Chinese linguistics; (3) interchange of scholarly ideas in a global context through seminars, workshops and co-operation among various international research institutions; (4) the institution of a visiting scholar’s program; and (5) dissemination of research results through publications, in particular through a new journal entitled the Bulletin of Chinese Linguistics.

The Society is a non-profit corporation whose financial foundation rests on contributions from scholars and interested parties such as yourself, who wish to honor the memory of Professor Li Fang-kuei by promoting the work and activities outlined above. To this end, speaking on behalf of the directors of the Society, I invite you to consider supporting our common scholarly and academic endeavors through whatever financial contributions you feel able to make, and also by contributing the fruits of your current research to the Bulletin of Chinese Linguisitics. We also invite you to familiarize yourself with the various grant programs and other sources of financial support offered by the Society, and to apply for any of them which you deem appropriate in your individual cases.