Wolfgang Behr (born 1965 in Göttingen, FRG), read Sinology, Slavic Studies, Indo-European and Comparative Linguistics and Sociology in Frankfurt/Main, Shenyang, Changchun and Moscow. He receied his M.A. in 1991 with a thesis on Sanskrit-Chinese lexicography, his Ph.D. in 1997 with a dissertation on "Rhyming Bronze Inscriptions and the Origins of Chinese End-Rhyme Versificaton", and his Habilitation in 2008 on "Phonological and Morphological Studies in Early Chinese History of Thought and Culture". Between 1991–1997 he was Teaching and Research Assistant at J.W. Goethe-Universität Frankfurt a.M., Research Fellow at the International Institute for Asian Studies, Leiden, in 1998, Research Fellow at the Swedish Collegium for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences, Uppsala in 2005, and University Lecturer (Akademischer Rat) at Ruhr-University Bochum 1998–2008. Since September 2008 he is Professor at UZH. He held visting professorships in Hong Kong in 2014 (at Chinese University) and in 2017 (at The Jao Tsung-i Academy) and was Senior Visiting Fellow at the Institute for Research in the Humanities at Kyôto University in 2022 and at Ca'Foscari University, Venice, in 2025. Between 2018 and 2022 he served as Dean of Research at the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences of UZH, since 2023 as Director of the IAOS.

• Old Chinese phonology, morphology, etymology & paleography
• Sino-Tibetan linguistics; external contacts of Old and Middle Chinese
• Premodern Chinese dialectology
• History of Chinese philology; epistemological foundations of historical linguistics in China, conceptual and cultural history, Philosophy of language beyond Standard Average European
• Pre-imperial Chinese archaeology & history; Early Chinese historiography
• Sanskrit-Chinese translation & lexicography
• Modern Chinese translation of Western experimental literature, translatability, puns, metrics
• Grammatology of complex non-alphabetic writing-systems

Recent Publications

• "Terrien de Lacouperie, Albert Étienne Jean Baptiste [other name: Terrien (Lahaymonnais Peixotte) de Poncel] (1844–1894)”, in: D. Cannadine (ed.), Oxford Dictionary of National Biography", Oxford: OUP 2025

• “Towards a Conceptual Prehistory of ‘Brainwashing’ / xinao 洗腦”, in: Jessica Imbach, Justyna Jaguścik, Brigit Knüsel Adamec (eds.), Rethinking Literary China: Essays in Honor of Andrea Riemenschnitter [Welten Ostasiens], Berlin: DeGruyter 2025, 59 pp.

• “How to keep a secret in Classical Chinese: logographic writing and cryptography in premodern China", in: J.F. Quack ed., Verrätselung von Geschriebenem [Philippika - Altertumswissenschaftliche Abhandlungen / Contributions to the Study of Ancient World Cultures; 187], Wiesbaden: O. Harrassowitz 2025, 50 pp.

• (with R. Suter, S. Grano, J. Imbach et al. eds.), Krise und Riskio. China und der Umgang mit Unwäg­barkeit [Jahrbuch der deutschen Vereinigung für China-Studien; 17], Wiesbaden: O. Harrassowitz 2024, v, 256 pp.

• (with S. Müller, M. Abedi, P. Wertmann), “Following the Donkey’s Trail: a Linguistic and Ar­chaeological Study on the Introduction of Domestic Donkeys to China”, International Journal of Eurasian Linguistics 6.1 (2024): 104–144 and 6.2 (2024): 294–358.

• “Tracing variation in Old Chinese: what, if anything, was “yayan 雅言”?, Journal of Chinese Linguis­tics 51.2 (2023): 287-348.

• (with R. Suter & P. Lukicheva, eds.), Vision and Visuality in Buddhism and Beyond, special issue of Asiatische Studien 74.4, 2021, pp. 753–1101.

• “Inscription Placement, Ineffability of Language and Discourses on Hiddenness: Marginalia on the Prehistory of Subtlety (wei) in Early China”, in: Henriette Hofmann, Barbara Schellewald, Sophie Schweinfurth, Gerald Wildgruber eds., Enthüllen und Verbergen in der Vormoderne / Reveal­ing and Concealing in the premodern period, München: W. Fink, 2021, pp. 87–126.

• “Gesichtsverlust 3.0”, in: Geschichte der Gegenwart, 18.IV.2021, https://geschichtedergegen­wart.ch/gesichtsverlust-3-0/

• (with Manuel Widmer, Matthias Jenny, Balthasar Bickel), “Morphological structure can escape re­duction effects from mass admixture of second language speakers”, in: Studies in Language 45.4 (2021), pp. 707–752.

• (with R. Suter & L. Indraccolo, eds.): The Gongsunlongzi and Other Neglected Texts: Aligning Philo­sophical and Philological Perspectives [Welten Ost­asiens], Berlin: De Gruyter, 2020, 575 pp. https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/9783110587814/html

See for a periodically updated list of publications and presentations https://uzh.academia.edu/WolfgangBehr

• Ancient Languages and Civilizations (Leiden)
• Asian and African Studies (Bratislava)
• Asiatische Studien / Études Asiatiques (Zürich/Berlin)
• Bulletin of Chinese Linguistics (Hong Kong & Leiden)
• Bulletin of the Jao Tsung-I-Academy of Sinology (Hong Kong)
• Bulletin of the Museum of Far Eastern Antiqtuities (Stockholm)
• Cahiers de Linguistique d' Asie-Orientale (Paris & Leiden)
• International Journal of CHinese Character Studies (Seoul)
• Journal of Asian History (Wiesbaden)
• Journal of Chinese Linguistics (Berkeley, Hong Kong & Macao)
• Old World: Journal of Ancient Africa and Eurasia (Leiden)
• Sino-Philosophica (Hamburg)
• T' oung Pao (Paris, Princeton & Leiden)
• Worlds of East Asia (Berlin)

• Writing in the Ancient World (Cambridge Elements Series)

• European Association for Chinese Studies (Linguistics section convenor, 2004–2010, Executive board 2010–2016)
• German Association of Chinese Studies 德國漢學協會
• European Association for the Study of Chinese Manuscripts (Founding Member)
• European Association of Chinese Linguistics (Secretary 2001-2003, President 2003-2007)
• International Association of Chinese Linguistics (Executive committee 1997–1999)
• Li Fang-kuei Society for Chinese Linguistics (Board of Directors 2009–2022)
• Swiss Asia Society (Executive Board 2009–, President 2015–2020)
• Academia Europaea (Ordinary Member, Linguistics Section)
• World Philology Union

cf. research page

• Beck, Anna Lisa, “Sharks in the Cultural History of the Sinophone World” (UZH, 2024-)

• Catania, Mariolina, “Martin Heideggers ‘ontologische Differenz’ und die klassische chine­sische Philosophie” (UZH, 2023–)

• Chen, Xiaolingtong, “The Role of Colours in Shang and Zhou Divinations: New Perspec­tives on Tian-worship in Bronze Age China” (Universität zu Köln, 2023–)

• Leverenz, Nicolas "Die Schlachtenbilder der Qing-Kaiser sowie ihre Reproduktion in China und Europa sowie ihr heutiger Verbleib" (UZH, 2024-)

• Liao, Xiangyu, “Phonological Studies on the early Cantonese folk songs” (UZH, 2023–)

• Liu, Xiaoli, "The The Journey of Books: A Study of the Dissemination and Influence of Ming Dynasty Military Books from the Perspective of East Asia" (UZH 2023-, Hauptbetreuer Prof. M. Winter)

• Tai, Ran, "Intertextual Dynamics: Analyzing the Role of ‘Jing’ and ‘Shuo’ in Pre-Qin Philosophical Texts" (UZH, 2024-)

• Trachsel, Yves, "The development of health care in the Northern borderlands of the Qing Empire" (UZH 2024-)

• Wu, Qipa, "The digital intersection of danmei culture in China (online TV-series and musicals)" (UZH 2023-, Hauptbetreuer Prof. C. Lötscher)

• Zorkina, Mariana, “The imagery of Tang ‘poems on things’: a semiotic approach” (2015–)

Potential Ph.D. students kindly contact me with a project outline, a detailed CV and a transcript of records of your M.A.