The Workshop was an interactive meeting among the doctoral students and the scholars from EHESS and CUHK, where each doctoral student had a short round of presentation and took part in a round table discussion afterwards.

The Symposium aimed to explore the outcomes of language and cultural change for certain lesser-known contact situations, relating to the past and present frontiers of China, along which diverse cultures and peoples have continuously intermingled. Prof. Alan Chan, Provost and J.S. Lee Professor of Chinese Culture at CUHK, delivered opening remarks for the Symposium. To further encourage academic exchange, Prof. Hilary Chappell, Research Chair at EHESS and Vice-Chancellor Visiting Professor at CUHK, was invited to deliver her keynote speech titled “Superstrate Effects of Negation in Waxiang: A Case Study of Language Contact in Northwestern Hunan, China”, which was insightful and thought-provoking. After the speech, the participants actively engaged in the Q&A session.

A total of nine scholars and graduate students, four from EHESS, namely, Prof. Katia Chirkova, Ms. Gao Xinyi, Ms. He Lisha, and Mr. Li Qingfeng (in alphabetical order of surnames), and five from CUHK, namely, Prof. Kwok Bit Chee, Mr. Xu Zetao, Dr. Ye Jia, Miss Zeng Xiuwei, and Dr. Zhou Mengyuan (in alphabetical order of surnames), were invited to present their research papers. The Symposium was conducted in both online and in-person formats, which drew in a significant number of colleagues and students who were interested in the related topics at hand, sparking lively and enthusiastic discussions.