1.Weijun Zhang , Wenwei Xu and Peggy Pik Ki Mok. A Preliminary Study on the Age Variation of the Voicing Contrast in Wenzhou Wu Chinese.
Abstract: Wu Chinese, spoken in the Southeastern part of China, still preserves an ancient feature of Middle Chinese, the phonological voicing contrast. The current study aims to investigate the age variation on the phonetic nature of voicing contrast in Wenzhou dialect of Wu using speech production data obtained from the electroglottography signal. True voicing contrast could be found in fricatives and intervocalic obstruents but not in initial plosives or affricates in both old and young speakers’ speech. For the young speakers, significant differences could be observed in phonation type of the vowels following all types of consonants: modal vowels after phonologically voiceless consonants and breathy vowels after phonologically voiced ones. However, the old speakers do not show a consistent contrast in phonation type of the following vowels. Therefore, there is apparent generational change related to the role of voice quality in the phonetic realisations of the voicing contrast.
2. Yiya Chen and Carlos Gussenhoven. Shanghai Chinese.
Abstract: Shanghai Chinese (Shanghainese; 上海话) is a Wu dialect (ISO 639-3; code: wuu) spoken in the city of Shanghai (CN-31), one of the four municipalities in the People's Republic of China. Over the last century, the dialect has been heavily influenced by neighbouring dialects spoken in the provinces of Jiangsu and Zhejiang, such as Jianghuai Mandarin (江淮官话), the Suzhou Wu dialect (吴语苏州话), and the Ningbo Wu dialect (吴语宁波话), in addition to two other, more distant dialects, Cantonese (广东话) and Northern Mandarin (北方官话). Most native speakers of Shanghai Chinese are in fact descendants of immigrants from Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces who moved to Shanghai in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. More recently, the position of Shanghai Chinese has been eroded with the influx of immigrants from other parts of the country and the widespread adoption of Standard Chinese.
3.Jiang Yuyu. Experimental Study on Vowel Acoustics for English Learners in Fujian and Wu Dialect Areas
Abstract: This paper compares similar vowels in the Min and Wu dialect meta-phonetic systems and the American English meta-phonetic systems, and finds that it is difficult for students in both regions to accurately acquire target sounds similar to those in the native language phonetic systems.However, the distribution and development trend of the intermediate vowel system of students in the two places is very close, probably because the phonological characteristics of similar vowels in the two dialect vowel systems are very close, so that the learner's second vowel acquisition is also more similar to the influence of the native language speech system.Keywords: similar vowels; formant; intermediate phonetic system; American English; Min dialect; Wu dialect.
4. SUN YIZHI. White Russians in Shanghai After The World War II: Analysis of Statistic Data
Abstract: This article is dedicated to the analysis of economic and social status of white Russian emigrants in Shanghai after the World War II. The data of the census survey conducted by the Shanghai Municipal Police in 1946-1947, as well as the personal consumption expenditures price index created by the Shanghai Bureau of Statistics are used in this article. During the analysis it became clear that the white Russian emigrants group in Shanghai in 1946-1947 was undergoing a transformation from "the low-class society," i.e. a group of refugees and poors, to "the high-class society," i.e. so called "shanghailanders".