Zhou Youguang facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Zhou Youguang
周有光
Zhou in the 1920s
Born	Zhou Yaoping (1906-01-13)13 January 1906 Changzhou, Jiangsu, China
Died	(2017-01-14)14 January 2017 (aged 111) Beijing, China
Alma mater	St. John's University Guanghua University
Known for	Development of pinyin; supercentenarian
Notable work	The Historical Evolution of Chinese Languages and Scripts
Spouse(s)	Zhang Yunhe ​ ​ (m. 1933; died 2002)​
Children	2
Chinese name
Chinese	周有光
Transcriptions Standard Mandarin Hanyu Pinyin Zhōu Yǒuguāng Bopomofo ㄓㄡ ㄧㄡˇ ㄍㄨㄤ Wade–Giles Chou1 Yu3-kuang1
Birth name
Chinese	周耀平
Transcriptions Standard Mandarin Hanyu Pinyin Zhōu Yàopíng Bopomofo ㄓㄡ ㄧㄠˋ ㄆㄧㄥˊ Wade–Giles Chou1 Yao4-p'ing2

Zhou Youguang (born Zhou Yaoping; January 13, 1906 – January 14, 2017) was a remarkable Chinese scholar. He was an expert in economics and linguistics, the study of language. He is widely known as the "father of pinyin," which is the most popular system for writing Chinese sounds using the Latin alphabet.

Pinyin was officially adopted by China in 1958. Later, the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) and the United Nations also recognized it. Zhou Youguang lived to be 111 years old, making him a supercentenarian, someone who lives past 110.

Who Was Zhou Youguang?

His Early Life and Education

Zhou Youguang with his wife Zhang Yunhe in 1938

Zhou Yaoping was born in Changzhou, China, on January 13, 1906. His father was a government official. When Zhou was ten, his family moved to Suzhou. In high school, he first became interested in languages. He graduated with honors in 1923.

That same year, Zhou enrolled at St. John's University, Shanghai. He studied economics and also took classes in linguistics. His family was not wealthy, but friends and relatives helped him pay for his studies. In 1925, he transferred to Guanghua University, graduating in 1927.

On April 30, 1933, Zhou married Zhang Yunhe. They moved to Japan for Zhou's studies at the University of Tokyo. He later transferred to Kyoto University. Their son, Zhou Xiaoping, was born in 1934. They also had a daughter named Xiaohe.

In 1937, a war broke out between China and Japan. Zhou and his family moved to Chongqing, which was the capital during the war. Sadly, his daughter passed away there. He worked in banking and for the government. After the war ended in 1945, Zhou worked for a bank again. He lived overseas in New York City and then in London. While in New York, he met the famous scientist Albert Einstein twice.

Zhou returned to Shanghai in 1949 when the People's Republic of China was established. He taught economics at Fudan University for several years.

Creating Pinyin: A New Way to Write Chinese

In 1955, Zhou Enlai, a leader in China and a friend of Zhou Youguang, asked him to come to Beijing. Zhou Enlai remembered Zhou Youguang's interest in languages. He gave him an important task: to help create a new system for writing Chinese.

The Chinese government wanted to make it easier for everyone to learn to read and write. Zhou Youguang was put in charge of a committee to reform the Chinese writing system. While other groups worked on spreading a common Chinese language and simplifying Chinese characters, Zhou's team focused on creating an alphabet.

Zhou later said this job was full-time and took about three years. His team based parts of Pinyin on older systems. For example, they used ideas from other ways of writing Chinese sounds and from systems that showed how to pronounce different tones. In 1958, the Chinese government officially adopted Pinyin (formally "Hanyu Pinyin"). It was meant to help people learn Chinese characters, not replace them entirely.

In 1979, Zhou Youguang traveled to a conference in Warsaw. He suggested that Pinyin should become an international standard. After a vote in 1982, Pinyin was accepted as ISO 7098, an international standard. Since then, Pinyin has largely replaced older systems for writing Chinese sounds.

Later Years and Important Ideas

Zhou Youguang in 2012

During a difficult period in China called the Cultural Revolution, Zhou Youguang was sent to work in the countryside for two years. Many other educated people faced similar experiences.

After 1980, Zhou worked with others to translate the Encyclopædia Britannica into Chinese. Because of this huge project, some people called him "Encyclopedia Zhou." He continued writing and publishing books even after Pinyin was created. For example, his book The Historical Evolution of Chinese Languages and Scripts was published in 2003. After he turned 100, he published ten more books. Some of his books were not available in China.

In a 2011 interview, Zhou shared his hope that China would change its view on a sad event that happened in 1989. He believed in more openness and democracy for China. He also felt that the government had sometimes harmed traditional Chinese culture.

A Long and Productive Life

In early 2013, Zhou and his son were interviewed at their home in Beijing. Zhou Youguang became a supercentenarian on January 13, 2016, when he turned 110 years old.

Zhou Youguang passed away on January 14, 2017, at his home in Beijing. This was just one day after his 111th birthday. His wife had passed away in 2002, and his son in 2015. In 2018, Google Doodle honored what would have been Zhou's 112th birthday with a special animated logo.

Books by Zhou Youguang

Zhou Youguang wrote more than 40 books. Over 10 of these were published after he turned 100 in 2006.

See also

In Spanish: Zhou Youguang para niños

• Yuen Ren Chao
• List of centenarians (educators, school administrators, social scientists and linguists)