Beijing Gives the Hush Order on Scholar’s Funeral

January 23, 2017 Phillip Charlier 0 Comment pinyin, Zhou youguang

Picture from a Communist Chinese website. Chinese Communist Party officials quashed plans for a grand farewell for late scholar Zhou You-guang, in his hometown of Changzhou Saturday, January 21, 2017. The 111 year-old scholar, known as “the father of pinyin” passed away January 14, just one day after his eleventy-first birthday. Beijing let Changzhou know who’s boss by insisting that only family members and friends could attend his funeral, and no outsiders or media were allowed. It was a quiet

Zhou youguang passed away January 14, 2017

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January 14, 2017January 14, 2017 Phillip Charlier 1 Comment pinyin, Zhou youguang

The man credited with creating the system used to write the Chinese language using the Latin alphabet passed away today, January 14, just one day after his 111th birthday. Zhou Youguang (周有光) was born January 13, 1906, and was 112 years-old according to the Chinese method of counting a person’s age. In 1955, Zhou was appointed head of a committee to develop a romanization system to render the sounds of the Chinese language using the Latin alphabet. The system the