Zhou Youguang

Zhou Youguang (, born Zhou Yaoping; 13 January 190614 January 2017), also known as Chou Yu-kuang or Chou Yao-ping, was a Chinese economist, linguist, sinologist, and supercentenarian. He has been credited as the father of pinyin,

Early life and career

Zhou Yaoping was born in Changzhou, Jiangsu, on 13 January 1906 to a Qing government official. At the age of ten, he and his family moved to Suzhou. In 1918, he entered Changzhou Senior High School, during which time he first took an interest in linguistics. He graduated in 1923 with honors.

Zhou enrolled that same year in St. John's University, Shanghai where he majored in economics and took supplementary coursework in linguistics.

For a time, Zhou participated in the China Democratic National Construction Association. He returned to Shanghai following the proclamation of the People's Republic of China in 1949, Although he had only worked as an economist up to this point, Zhou Enlai had recalled his fascination with linguistics and Esperanto. The Chinese government placed Zhou at the head of a committee tasked with reforming the Chinese writing system, with the goal being to increase literacy among the population.

While other committees worked to promulgate Standard Chinese as the national language, and simplify the forms of Chinese characters, Zhou's committee was charged with the development of an alphabet intended to eventually replace characters altogether. In 1958, the Chinese government adopted pinyin (formally "Hanyu Pinyin") as its official romanization system, though by this point its intended purpose was to accompany Chinese characters, rather than replace them.

In April 1979, on behalf of the Chinese government Zhou attended an International Organization for Standardization (ISO) conference in Warsaw, where he proposed that pinyin be adopted as an international standard. Following a vote in 1982, the scheme became ISO 7098. Since its initial promulgation, pinyin has largely replaced older systems like Gwoyeu Romatzyh and Wade–Giles. Beyond the age of 100, he published ten books, some of which have been banned in China.

In early 2013, Zhou and his son were interviewed by Adeline Yen Mah at their home in Beijing. Mah documented the visit on video, during which she presented Zhou with a pinyin game for the iPad that she had created. Zhou became a supercentenarian on 13 January 2016 when he reached the age of 110.

Zhou died on 14 January 2017 at his home in Beijing, one day after his 111th birthday. The cause of death was not made public.

Books

Zhou was the author of more than 40 books, some of them are banned in China and over 10 of them published after he turned 100 in 2006. 1980 Problems with Pinyin 1980 The tempest of language 1981 Modernization of the Chinese language 1986 A brief history of the world's alphabets 1990 Constructing new languages 1992 Features of the Chinese language 1992 Fundamentals of Pinyin 1993 Language Chat 1995 Capriccio on culture or Cultural fantasia 1997 History of the worldwide development of writing 1997 The historical evolution of Chinese languages and scripts 1997 A tentative study of comparative philology 1998 Passionate people don't age 1998 Chinese characters and the question of culture 1999 The new language of the new era 1999 An introduction to human (written) language 2000 The shock wave of modern culture 2000 Written and spoken Chinese of 21st century 2002 Collection of essays by Zhou Youguang on the Chinese language 2002 Centenarian's essay 2005 Essay collection 2010 Selected essays 2011 Today a new year blooms 2011 My life story 2013 "The years passed like water" - Zhou Youguang's oral recounting of his life 2015