Wei-Lin Chang

Dr. Wei-Lin Melody Chang is a Senior Lecturer in Chinese and Chinese Major Convenor in the School of Languages and Cultures, Faculty of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences, at the University of Queensland. She holds a Doctor of Philosophy from Griffith University. Chang's research focuses on pragmatics, intercultural communication, applied linguistics, business negotiation, face and face practices, (im)politeness, and humour in Chinese talk-in-interaction. Her current projects analyze initial interactions in inter- and intra-cultural settings and explore the role of humour in Australia-Chinese intercultural interactions. She supervises PhD candidates on topics such as conversational humour in intercultural initial interactions, relationship management in Chinese-Australian family talk, and emerging intercultural communication styles among Japanese and Australian entrepreneurs.

Chang authored the monograph Face and face practices in Chinese interaction: a study in interactional pragmatics (Equinox, 2016). Her publications feature in top journals including Journal of Pragmatics, Intercultural Pragmatics, Humor: International Journal of Humor Research, Pragmatics, Lingua, and East Asian Pragmatics. Recent works encompass 'Sharing affect with the unacquainted: the role of conversational humor in initial interactions among Mandarin Chinese speakers' (Humor, 2026), '“Being your son is rather tiring”: assessments and assessment responses in initial interactions in Mandarin Chinese' (Journal of Pragmatics, 2025), 'Negotiating interactional routines in the openings of intercultural first encounters' (Intercultural Pragmatics, 2025, with Michael Haugh and Yuji Sato), and 'The role of “familiarity” in Mandarin Chinese speakers' metapragmatic evaluations of Australian conversational humour' (European Journal of Humour Research, 2022, with Valeria Sinkeviciute). She has contributed chapters to volumes such as The Cambridge Handbook of Intercultural Pragmatics (2022) and The sociopragmatics of emotion (2025). Chang received funding from the Chiang Ching-Kuo Foundation for International Scholarly Exchange for her project 'Offence and online public shaming in Taiwan' (2022-2026). Her scholarship advances sociopragmatic understandings in language, communication, and culture.