The Association came into existence of June 25, 1992 in Singapore amidst the posh surroundings of the York Hotel, and with 95 witnesses (whose names are given in Appendix II). It marks a milestone, and heralds a new era, in the study of the languages of the most populous people of the world who also have the longest continuous written tradition. Its birthplace in Singapore is unusual because Singapore is the smallest (population 2.7 million) of the four speech communities (i.e. Hong Kong, Chinese Mainland and Taiwan) in which Chinese is an official language, and because by fare the majority of its principal founding office bearers are based in America. Any exegesis on the formation of such an international organization would require an in-depth analysis of the post war developments in the field. However, in this brief report only a few observations will be offered.
     After World War II, a number of learned societies began to emerge in different Asian countries to further studies on Chinese languages and linguistics. By the 1980’s, the number of such learned societies and scholarly conferences, reflecting significant and growing interests, had grown by leaps and bounds, on the Chinese Mainland, in Taiwan, and in Hong Kong. However, very often they served as focal points for often quite exclusive local activities, and the participation of outside scholars was generally minimal, though increasing.
     On the other hand, a regular annual conference on Sino-Tibetan languages and linguistics began in America in the late 1960’s and has continued to grow. The conference has always involved a group of specialists with an international background because many of the academics and their students, though based in America, were from Asian countries. It was also able to regularly draw visiting scholars from Asia but also language specialists and linguists from within the entire Sino-Tibetan language family.  By the late 1980’s, the conference had been held twice outside North America, in Paris (1980) and in Beijing (1982). Its focus had also expanded significantly from a concentration on historical-comparative reconstruction in Sino-Tibetan to widening interest embracing purely synchronic studies. These included phonological studies of languages and dialects of China, as well as studies of the Tibeto-Burman languages within and outside China. The increasing availability of rich data led to the extensive and systematic culling of data, often in the context of prevailing linguistic theories based on western languages. Furthermore, the rising importance of syntax had reached such heights that parallel sessions had to be held in many conferences, with some participants lamenting the loss of opportunities to listen in on all papers of interest to them, as well as others whose interest lay in limited sessions in which they had direct involvement. In short, there has been a noticeable expansion from a primarily diachronic focus to that which includes synchronic interest. The not infrequent glaring gap in common interest between an epigrapher and a syntactician testifies to the growth in the field as the number of traditional sinologist and orientalists began to dwindle. This led to separate conferences on Chinese linguistics, and the first organized effort began as the First Northeast (American) conference on Chinese Linguistics in 1989, which became the Third North American Conference on Chinese Linguistics (NACCL) in 1991. Many participants at these conferences spoke Chinese as their first language and they accounted for more than half of the participants on some occasions.
     The 1970’s also saw an increase in the learning and teaching of Chinese outside China, and related professional organizations and scholarly activities grew not only in America but in Asia as well. International conference as well as semi-government sponsored organizations devoted to the teaching of Chinese to non-native speakers also appeared in Taiwan and the Chinese Mainland. It is historically noteworthy that an international conference on the teaching of Chinese held in Singapore in 1990 was opened by its Prime Minister.
     As interest on languages of China and Chinese linguistics developed on both sides of the Pacific Ocean, a very large and ever widening international network was formed, and the need for closer and organized liaison was increasingly felt. How this need could be adequately met became a subject of informal discussions in different circles.
     When Academia Sinica opened up its Chinese linguistics forums in 1990, and initiated its own series of international conference where participation would not be necessarily by invitation, the idea of holding regular conferences on Chinese linguistics in a truly international context was raised and took roots. An informal understanding was reached whereby Chen Chun-yu of Singapore would lead off with the first conference in 1992, in place of the more broadly focused Sino-Tibetan conference being planned, and Alain Peyraube of France and Benjamin T’sou of Hong Kong would organize the second and third conferences. The fourth conference would be held in America. At the Third NAACL organized by James Huang at Cornell University in 1991, a steering group was formed to coordinate these activities and to explore the formation of an international organization on Chinese linguistics. Membership in the steering group consisted of the aforementioned Chen, Peyraube, T’sou and Huang, and subsequently included Ho Dah-an of Academia Sinica in Taiwan. Through the tireless efforts of James Huang and the media of electronic mail a continual stream of arduous discussions flowed for the following year. They were concerned with, among other topics, various constitutional matters related to the proposed Association, such as the designation of the association, its objective and details of governance. To ensure an adequate global orientation, it was decided after much deliberation by the steering group that geographical representation rather than proportional representation in its governing body would be appropriate, and, to avoid political sensitivities in Asia, geographical rather than political designations for membership would be used. The resultant draft constitution was completed in time for the Singapore conference, which became the venue for the historical launching of the IACL. The final form of this constitution appears in the first IACL Newsletter, edited by James Huang.

Appendix I.

List of IACL officers:

 President: William S-Y. Wang
 Vice President: Pang-Hsin Ting
 Secretary: James Huang
 Vice Secretary: Benjamin T’sou
 Treasurer: James Tai

Other members of the Executive committee

 William Baxter  Chungyu Chen  Pyog Heo
 Dah-An Ho   Jingyi Hou   Ray Iwata
 Jian Liu   Jerome Packard  Waltraud Paul
 Alain Peyraube  Samuel Wang
 

Appendix II.

Signers at the Singapore meeting.

 Alleton, Vivian          Kirkpatrick, Andy              Tseng, Chiu-yu
 Bourgerie, Dana S      Kung, Hui-I                        Tsou, Benjamin
 Chan, C S                   Kupfer, Peter                     Tung, Chung-Szu
 Chen, Chung-Yu         Lai, B.Y. Tom                   Van den Berg,
 Cheng, Lisa                Lamarre, Christine                      Marium
 Chen, Matthew          Lee, Ngian Kai                    Wang, Dechun
 Cheung, S                   Lee Wong, Song Mei          Wiedenhof, Jeroen
 Chen, Yi Quang          Leung, Cheung Shing          Wong, Kuan-io
 Cheung, Yat Shing      Li, Ling-nei   Wong, P K
Chin, Yook                  Li, Rulong                          Woon, Wee-Lee
 Chu, Chauncey          Li, Y H Audrey                  Wu, Guo
 Chu, Chia-ning           Li, Y C                               Wu, Tie-ping
 Chu, Eng Hock          Li, Yong-ming                     Xing, Fuyi
 Cole, Peter                 Lin, Wo Ling                       Xu, Daming
 Eccles, Lance              Liu, Cheng Hui                   Xu, Ding
 Ernst, Thomas           Liu, Hsiao-mei                     Xu, Jie
 Fung, Yiu Ming          Liu, Ling                              Xu, Liejiong
 Gao, Yunqi                Loke, Kit Kan                     Yap Rahman, S K
 Gu, Gang                   Miao, Yong He                   Ye, Baokui
 He, Shaoyi                Myers, Dan                         Ye, Xiang Ling
 He, Zhi-jian               Ng, Siew Ai                        Yu, Hongju
 Henry, Alison           Packard, Jerry                     Zhang, Hongming
 Heo, Pyog                  Paul, Waltraud                   Zhang, Zhi-gong
 Her, One-Soon           Peyraube, Alain                 Zhang, Zheng-Sheng
 Ho, San Pen               Phoe, Diana Chan              Zhang, Yu Hui
 Hong-Fincher, Beverly     Setoguchi, Ritsuko      Zhengzhang,
 Hou, Jingyi                Sarosta, Stanley                 Shangfang
 Hsieh, Hsin-I             Su, Elizabeth
 Hu, J P                      Sun, Chaofen                      Hua, Hannah H-C
 Sun, Wei Zhang         Huang, Chu-Ren                Sung, Margaret M Y
 Huang, James            Tai, James                          Hung, Tong
Tang, Jane                  Iwata, Ray                         Tang, Zhixiang
 Kautz, Ulrich           Ting, Pang-Hsin
 

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