Zhou Youguang
Chinese linguist
Zhou Youguang
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周有光
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Zhou in the 1920s
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Born |
Chou Yao-ping
( 1906-01-13 ) 13 January 1906 |
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Died |
14 January 2017
(2017-01-14)
(aged
111)
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Alma mater |
St. John's University
Guanghua University |
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Known for | Development of Pinyin ; supercentenarian | |||||||
Notable work | The Historical Evolution of Chinese Languages and Scripts | |||||||
Political party | China Democratic National Construction Association | |||||||
Spouse | ||||||||
Children | 2 | |||||||
Chinese name | ||||||||
Chinese | 周有光 | |||||||
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Birth name | ||||||||
Chinese | 周耀平 | |||||||
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Zhou Youguang ( Chinese : 周有光 ; pinyin : Zhōu Yǒuguāng ; 13 January 1906 – 14 January 2017), also known as Chou Yu-kuang or Chou Yao-ping , was a Chinese economist , banker, linguist , sinologist , Esperantist , [1] [2] publisher , and supercentenarian , known as the "father of Pinyin ", [3] [4] [5] a system for the writing of Mandarin Chinese in Roman script, or romanization , which was officially adopted by the government of the People's Republic of China in 1958, the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) in 1982, and the United Nations in 1986. [5] [6]
Early life and career
Zhou was born Zhou Yaoping in Changzhou (Changchow), Jiangsu Province, on 13 January 1906 to a Qing Dynasty official. [3] [7] At the age of ten, he and his family moved to Suzhou , Jiangsu Province. In 1918, he entered Changzhou High School , during which time he first took an interest in linguistics . He graduated in 1923 with honors . [8]
Zhou enrolled that same year in St. John's University, Shanghai where he majored in economics and took supplementary coursework in linguistics . [7] He was almost unable to attend due to his family's poverty, but friends and relatives raised 200 yuan for the admission fee, and also helped him pay for tuition . [8] He left during the May Thirtieth Movement of 1925 and transferred to Guanghua University , from which he graduated in 1927. [7]
On 30 April 1933, Zhou married Zhang Yunhe ( 张允和 ). The couple went to Japan for Zhou's studies. [7] Zhou started as an exchange student at the University of Tokyo , later transferring to Kyoto University due to his admiration of the Japanese Marxist economist Hajime Kawakami , who was a professor there at the time. Kawakami's arrest for joining the outlawed Japanese Communist Party in January 1933 meant that Zhou could not be his student. Zhou's son, Zhou Xiaoping ( 周晓平 ), was born in 1934. The couple also had a daughter, Zhou Xiaohe ( 周小禾 ). [8]
In 1937, due to the outbreak of the Second Sino-Japanese War , Zhou and his family moved to the wartime capital Chongqing , and his daughter died. [5] He worked for Sin Hua Bank before entering public service as a deputy director at the National Government's Ministry of Economic Affairs , agricultural policy bureau ( 经济部农本局 ). After the 1945 Japanese defeat in World War II, Zhou went back to work for Sin Hua where he was stationed overseas: first in New York City and then in London. When he was in New York, he met Albert Einstein twice while visiting friends at Princeton University . [9]
Zhou participated for a time in the China Democratic National Construction Association . [ citation needed ] After the founding of the People's Republic was established in 1949 he returned to Shanghai, [7] [3] [4] where he taught economics at Fudan University for several years. [5]
Designing Pinyin
Because of his friendship with Zhou Enlai who recalled the economist's fascination with linguistics and Esperanto , he summoned Zhou to Beijing in 1955 and tasked his team with developing a new alphabet for China. [10] The Chinese government placed Zhou at the head of a committee to reform the Chinese language to increase literacy .
While other committees oversaw the tasks of promulgating Mandarin Chinese as the national language and creating simplified Chinese characters , Zhou's committee was charged with developing a romanization to represent the pronunciation of Chinese characters . [3] Zhou said the task took about three years, and was a full-time job. [3] Pinyin was made the official romanization in 1958, although (as now) it was only a pronunciation guide, not a substitute writing system. [11] Zhou's team based Pinyin on several preexisting systems: the phonemes were inspired by Gwoyeu Romatzyh of 1928 and Latinxua Sin Wenz of 1931, while the diacritic markings representing tones were inspired by zhuyin . [12]
In April 1979, the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) in Warsaw held a technology conference. Speaking on behalf of the People's Republic of China , Zhou proposed the use of the " Hanyu Pinyin System" as the international standard for the romanization of Chinese. Following a vote in 1982 the scheme became ISO 7098 .
In the modern era Pinyin has largely replaced older romanization systems such as Wade-Giles . [5]
Later activities
During the Cultural Revolution , Zhou was sent to live in the countryside and to be " reeducated ", as were many other intellectuals at that time. [3] [4] He spent two years at a labor camp . [13]
After 1980, Zhou worked with Liu Zunqi and Chien Wei-zang on translating the Encyclopædia Britannica into Chinese, earning him the nickname "Encyclopedia Zhou". [7] Zhou continued writing and publishing after the creation of Pinyin; for example, his book 中国语文的时代演进 (Zhōngguó yǔwén de shídài yǎnjìn), translated into English by Zhang Liqing, was published in 2003 as The Historical Evolution of Chinese Languages and Scripts . [14] Beyond the age of 100, he published ten books, some of which have been banned in China . [13]
In 2011, during an interview with NPR, Zhou said that he hoped to see the day China changed its position on the Tiananmen Square killings in 1989 , an event he said had ruined Deng Xiaoping 's reputation as a reformer. [13] He became an advocate of political reform and democracy in China , and was critical of the Communist Party of China 's attacks on traditional Chinese culture when it came into power. [13]
In early 2013, both Zhou and his son were interviewed by Dr. Adeline Yen Mah at their residence in Beijing . Mah documented the visit in a video and presented Zhou with a Pinyin game she created for the iPad. [15] Zhou became a supercentenarian on 13 January 2016 when he reached the age of 110. [16]
Zhou died on 14 January 2017 at his home in Beijing , one day after his 111th birthday; no cause was given. [5] His wife had died in 2002, and his son had died in 2015. [5]
Google honored what would have been his 112th birthday with an animated version of its logo in Mandarin. [17]
Books
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Zhou was the author of more than 40 books, some of them banned in China and over 10 of them published after he turned 100 in 2006. [5]
Title ( Simplified Chinese ) | Pinyin | English title | Publication year |
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新中国的金融问题 | Xīn zhōngguó de jīnróng wèntí | New China's financial problems | 1949 |
汉语拼音词汇 | Hànyǔ pīnyīn cíhuì | Chinese phonetic alphabet glossary | 1950 |
中国拼音文字研究 | Zhōngguó pīnyīn wénzì yánjiū | A study of Chinese phonetic alphabets | 1953 |
资本的原始积累 | Zīběn de yuánshǐ jīlěi | Primitive accumulation of capital | 1954 |
字母的故事 | Zìmǔ de gùshi | The alphabet's story | 1954 |
汉字改革概论 | Hànzì gǎigé gài lùn | On the reform of Chinese characters | 1961 |
电报拼音化 | Diànbào pīnyīn huà | Telegraph romanization | 1965 |
汉语手指字母论集 | Hànyǔ shǒuzhǐ zìmǔ lùn jí | Essays on Chinese Sign Language | 1965 |
汉字声旁读音便查 | Hànzì Shēngpáng dúyīn Biànchá | A handy guide to the pronunciation of phonetics in Chinese characters [18] | 1980 |
拼音化问题 | Pīnyīn huà wèntí | Problems with Pinyin | 1980 |
语文风云 | Yǔwén fēngyún | The tempest of language | 1981 |
中国语文的现代化 | Zhōngguó yǔwén de xiàndàihuà | Modernization of the Chinese language | 1986 |
世界字母简史 | Shìjiè zìmǔ jiǎn shǐ | A brief history of the world's alphabets | 1990 |
新语文的建设 | Xīn yǔwén de jiànshè | Constructing new languages | 1992 |
中国语文纵横谈 | Zhōngguó yǔwén zònghéng tán | Features of the Chinese language | 1992 |
汉语拼音方案基础知识 | Hànyǔ Pīnyīn Fāng'àn jīchǔ zhīshì | Fundamentals of Pinyin | 1993 |
语文闲谈 | Yǔwén xiántán | Language Chat | 1995 |
文化畅想曲 | Wénhuà chàngxiǎng qǔ | Capriccio on culture or Cultural fantasia | 1997 |
世界文字发展史 | Shìjiè wénzì fāzhǎn shǐ | History of the worldwide development of writing | 1997 |
中国语文的时代演进 | Zhōngguó yǔwén de shídài yǎnjìn | The historical evolution of Chinese languages and scripts | 1997 |
比较文字学初探 | Bǐjiào wénzì xué chūtàn | A tentative study of comparative philology | 1998 |
多情人不老 | Duō qíngrén bùlǎo | Passionate people don't age | 1998 |
汉字和文化问题 | Hànzì hé wénhuà wèntí | Chinese characters and the question of culture | 1999 |
新时代的新语文 | Xīn shídài de xīn yǔwén | The new language of the new era | 1999 |
人类文字浅说 | Rénlèi wénzì qiǎnshuō | An introduction to human (written) language | 2000 |
现代文化的冲击波 | Xiàndài wénhuà de chōngjíbō | The shock wave of modern culture | 2000 |
21世纪的华语和华文 | 21 Shìjì de huáyǔ hé huáwén | Written and spoken Chinese of 21st century | 2002 |
周有光语文论集 | Zhōu Yǒuguāng yǔwén lùn jí | Collection of essays by Zhou Youguang on the Chinese language | 2002 |
百岁新稿 | Bǎi suì xīn gǎo | Centenarian's essay | 2005 |
朝闻道集 | Zhāo wén dào jí | Essay collection | 2010 |
拾贝集 | Shi bèi jí | Selected essays | 2011 |
今日花开又一年 | Jīnrì huā kāi yòu yī nián | Today a new year blooms | 2011 |
我的人生故事 | Wǒ de rénshēng gùshi | My life story | 2013 |
逝年如水 - 周有光百年口述 | Shì nián rúshuǐ - Zhōu Yǒuguāng bǎinián kǒushù | "The years passed like water" - Zhou Youguang's oral recounting of his life | 2015 |
Gallery
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Zhou Youguang's former Changzhou residence, now a historical site
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An early photo of Zhou and his family
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Zhou (right) posing with writer Shen Congwen (center) and Gu Chuanjie ( 顧傳玠 ) (left) in 1946
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Zhou in 1947
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Zhou and wife in 1953
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Zhou Youguang at his home in Beijing in 2012, aged 106
See also
References
- ↑ (fr) Le soutien ambigu de la République Populaire de Chine à l'esperanto , Médiapart , 17/06/2019
- ↑ Harrison Smith, Zhou Youguang, whose Pinyin writing system helped modernize China, dies at 111 , The Washington Post, 16/01/2017.
- 1 2 3 4 5 6 "Father of pinyin" . China Daily . 26 March 2009. Archived from the original on 21 July 2012 . Retrieved 12 July 2009 . Reprinted in part as Simon, Alan (21–27 January 2011). "Father of Pinyin". China Daily Asia Weekly . Hong Kong. Xinhua News Agency. p. 20.
- 1 2 3 Branigan, Tania (21 February 2008). "Sound Principles" . The Guardian . Archived from the original on 21 November 2016 . Retrieved 12 July 2009 .
- 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Margalit Fox (14 January 2017). "Zhou Youguang, Who Made Writing Chinese as Simple as ABC, Dies at 111" . The New York Times . Archived from the original on 20 January 2017.
- ↑ Bristow, Michael (22 March 2012). "The man who helped 'simplify' Chinese" . BBC News . Archived from the original on 22 January 2015 . Retrieved 20 January 2017 .
- 1 2 3 4 5 6 李怀宇 (8 December 2005). 周有光:与时俱进文章里 百年风云笑谈中·南方社区·南方网 [ Zhou Youguang: A lifetime of unstable situations and being laughed at ] . 南方网 (in Chinese) . Retrieved 15 January 2017 .
- 1 2 3 金玉良 (2003). 苏州杂志2003第2期-周有光忆学生时代 [ Zhou Youguang's Time as a Student ] . Journal of Suzhou University (in Chinese). Archived from the original on 4 March 2016 . Retrieved 4 March 2016 .
- ↑ "China's Zhou Youguang, linguist turned dissident, dies at 111" . Hong Kong Free Press. AFP. 16 January 2017.
- ↑ Harrison Smith, Zhou Youguang, whose Pinyin writing system helped modernize China, dies at 111, The Washington Post, 1. January 2017.
- ↑ Ramsey, S. Robert (1989). The Languages of China . Princeton University Press. p. 145. ISBN 978-0-691-01468-5 .
- ↑ Rohsenow, John S. 1989. Fifty years of script and written language reform in the PRC: the genesis of the language law of 2001. In Zhou Minglang and Sun Hongkai, eds. Language Policy In The People's Republic Of China: Theory And Practice Since 1949 , p. 23
- 1 2 3 4 Lim, Louisa (19 October 2011). "At 105, Chinese Linguist Now A Government Critic" . NPR . Retrieved 19 October 2011 .
- ↑ Youguang Zhou 周有光. The Historical Evolution of Chinese Languages and Scripts; 中国语文的时代演进 , translated by Zhang Liqing 张立青. Ohio State University National East Asian Language Resource Center. 2003.
- ↑ "Dr. Adeline Yen Mah meets the founder of Pin Yin Youguang Zhou" . chinesecharacteraday.com. 14 March 2013.
- ↑ Lai, Kitty (15 January 2016). "Zhu ni shengri kuaile! Father of Pinyin turns 110 years old, celebrates with a strawberry-topped cake" . Shanghaiist . Retrieved 16 January 2016 .
- ↑ "Zhou Youguang: Why Google honors him today" . Al Jazeera . Al Jazeera Media Network . Retrieved 13 January 2018 .
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↑
The Chinese Language: Fact and Fantasy
.
Honolulu
:
University of Hawaii Press
. 1984. p.
315.
ISBN
0-8248-0866-5
.
———. 1980f. Hanzi Shengpang duyin Biancha [A handy guide to the pronunciation of phonetics in Chinese characters]. Kirin.
Further reading
- Bristow, Michael (22 March 2012). "The man who helped 'simplify' Chinese" . BBC News .
- LaFraniere, Sharon (2 March 2012). "A Chinese Voice of Dissent That Took Its Time" . The New York Times .
- Mair, Victor H. (2017). "Zhou Youguang 周有光: (January 13, 1906 – January 14, 2017)". Memoriam. Journal of Chinese Linguistics . 45 (2): 500–507. doi : 10.1353/jcl.2017.0024 .
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