As early as 1930s, linguists in China used experimental methods to analyze Chinese phonetics. There are four tones experimental records of Liu Fu (1924) and Bobai dialect experimental records of Wang Li (193 1). They studied phonetics in France and experimented with Chinese tones with moire meters. At that time, they first made it clear that tone is the relationship between pitch and frequency in China. After 1930s, Zhao Yuanren investigated Wu dialect and dialects in Guangdong, Guangxi, Hubei and Hunan, and Luo Changpei investigated dialects in Xiamen. They all recorded and analyzed the pronunciation with recording instruments, moire meters and tone sandhi meters at that time. Liu Fu invented the tone inference ruler, which is the first phonetic experimental instrument in China. Zhao Yuanren has established a world-class phonetics laboratory in the Institute of History and Linguistics of Nanjing Academia Sinica, and Luo Changpei has established a music law laboratory in Peking University, all of which have complete recording equipment, various types of moiré meters and some physiological experimental instruments obtained from abroad. They also cooperated with the Institute of Physics of Academia Sinica to make a colorimeter for electron tubes. After the founding of New China, the Institute of Linguistics of China Academy of Sciences continued to carry out phonetics experiments. In the mid-1950s, a phonetic laboratory was established, and experimental instruments were introduced and made by ourselves. With the promotion of Putonghua, our room has published many books on physiological and acoustic analysis of Putonghua for many years, which has cultivated new forces. At the same time, Institute of Acoustics, Chinese Academy of Sciences has also carried out speech experiments and done a lot of speech analysis, synthesis and recognition. In addition, the Physics Department of Nanjing University has also done a lot of work in the teaching and research of acoustic phonetics.

After 1970s, some universities in China set up phonetic laboratories in Chinese Department in order to cooperate with phonetic teaching, such as Peking University, Beijing Normal University and Shanghai East China Normal University. All institutions related to voice communication engineering are also engaged in voice experiments.