Professor Qian Zengyi was born in March 1932. From September 1952 to July 1956 she was a student in the Department of Chinese Language and Literature of Shandong University. After graduation, she stayed on at Shandong University as a member of the teaching staff. In July of the same year, she enrolled in the second year of the Graduate Program for Research in Putonghua Phonetics jointly organized by the Ministry of Education and the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. After graduating from that, Professor Qian stayed on to serve in the capacity of an instructor in the third year of the Program. In 1957, she returned to the Department of Chinese Language and Literature Shandong University, joining the faculty in teaching and research, primarily in the fields of Modern Chinese Language and Chinese Dialectology. Professor Qian has been teaching and doing research work in these areas ever since. Currently, she is a Professor at the School of Literature of Shandong University, and a Dissertation Advisor for Ph.D  students. Aside from these faculty positions, Professor Qian also serves as a Director of the National Association of Dialectology.