GUI, Ming Chao 1946-

PERSONAL:

Born July 1, 1946, in Kunming, Yunan, China; naturalized U.S. citizen; son of Cankun Gui (a university professor) and Mifen Guo (a university employee); divorced; children: Mason James, Marion Jane. Ethnicity: "Asian American." Education: Canton Institute of Foreign Languages, B.A., 1969; University of Texas, M.A., Ph.D., 1990. Religion: Christian.

ADDRESSES:

Home—Norman, OK. Office—Department of Modern Languages, Literature, and Linguistics, 780 Van Vleet Oval, University of Oklahoma, Norman, OK 73019. E-mail—mgui@ou.edu.

CAREER:

Educator and author. Provincial Broadcast Station of Guangdong, Canton, China, producer and teacher of radio course in English-as-a-second-language, 1977-82; Canton Institute of Foreign Languages, lecturer in English language and literature, 1981-83; University of Oklahoma, Norman, assistant professor of Chinese and linguistics, 1994—, and chairperson of East Asian exchange committee. Also worked as a library technician and as a bilingual translator and interpreter.

MEMBER:

Linguistic Association of America and Canada, Chinese Language Teachers Association, Foreign Language Teachers Association of Oklahoma.

AWARDS, HONORS:

University of Oklahoma Cecil Wood Memorial Teaching Award, 1998, and president's international travel fellowship, 2000.

WRITINGS:

The Phonological Developments of Kunming Chinese in the Past Sixty Years, Language Research (Wuhan, China), 1992.

Fronted or Nasalized? Acoustic Phonetic Analysis of Two Nasal Rhymes in Kunming Chinese, Language Research (Wuhan, China), 1997.

(Coauthor) Report on the Field Work in Ngai Hua of Luocheng County of Guangxi Province, Language Research (Wuhan, China), 1998.

The Influence of the Reduplication on the Semantics and Tones of Kunming Chinese, Language Research (Wuhan, China), 1999.

Phonological Analysis of Yangsan Hua of Luocheng County of Guangxi Province, Language Research (Wuhan, China), 1999.

Irregularity in English Grammar and Spelling, World of English (Beijing, China), 2000.

The Interruption of American English Intonation Patterns to the Perception of Mandarin Tones by American Students, Chinese Teaching in the World (Beijing, China), 2000.

Kunming Chinese, Lincom Europa (Munich, Germany), 2000.

Yunnanese and Kunming Chinese: A Study of the Language Communities, the Phonological Systems, and the Phonological Developments, Lincom Europa (Munich, Germany), 2002.

Contributor to periodicals, including Fujian Foreign Language Journal.

WORK IN PROGRESS:

Research for a Kunming Chinese pronunciation dictionary; research on Hekou Hua, a dialect spoken in Yunan Province.

SIDELIGHTS:

Ming Chao Gui told CA: "My father, professor Cankun Gui, a leading linguist and educator in China, is my mentor and guide. Without his inspiration and encouragement my academic achievements would not be possible. Sentimental feelings for my home town are another driving force in my research and publication. I feel the urge to do something for the place where I was given my life. "My personal experience in research and academic work can be summarized as follows. Theory is important in the way that it can be used for practical purposes. Theory for theory's sake is just like the flowers in the vase: for the look, but not for use. I would rather work on something alive than dead—living languages (synchronic linguistics investigation) rather than 'proto-languages' (diachronic linguistic investigation). To study theory does not mean to be limited or controlled by it; always be yourself. Being self-confident does not mean rejecting the experience and achievement of others. Keep reading whenever you can. When people get older, they will be wiser. Use the wisdom and try to leave something useful for the world before you leave it. Always think positively and do things in a constructive way. We have only one life; why not a better one?"