Zhou Youguang: Why Google honours Him

This is the story of how an “amateur” with courage and passion can change a huge nation and enhance the lives of many millions of ordinary people.

Described as "the father of Pinyin", or Chinese phonetic language, and hailed as the man who simplified Chinese, Zhou Youguang would have been 112 this Saturday.

In his honour, Google is changing its logo in 12 countries to a doodle, or illustration, of him and his contribution to Chinese language.

Love For China:

"He brings light to the world"-he was born in Chanzgzhou in 1906, and he shows interest in Lingyistics at the early age when he was only 12 years old.

Zhou yaoping, he later adopted his name "Yougang" because he wanted to bring light to the world.

University: In 1923,he married with Zhang Yunhe later he moved to japan to complete his study there.He studied at St. John's University, Shanghai.

He graduated in 1927 in Economics and took supplementary course work .
In 1923 Zhou Youguang married with Zhang Yunhe ,later he moved to japan to continue his study then he return back to home. he returned back in home in 1937 at the starting time of Sino-Japanese war.
In 1945 after the defeat of japanese at the end of world war two,Zhang Yunhe worked in Sin hua bank where he was the stationed overseas in New york city and in the London.
In 1949 he returned back after the establishment of Communist of china, and he was exited and took part in resurgent country.
Back in china, he taught economics at Fudan University in Shanghai.

Language Romanization:

Reforming the Chinese language. In 1955, the government placed Zhou at the head of a committee to reform the Chinese language.

He was called by Zhou Enlai, a person he met in his bank job who was now the second leader in China.

"Linguistics was just a hobby". Zhou initially declined, saying that linguistics was only his hobby, but he was not allowed to refuse the offer. He moved to Beijing, where he began a three-year effort, and developed the invention of Pinyin.

A pronunciation guide. Pinyin was made the official romanization in 1958. It is only a pronunciation guide, and not a substitute writing system.
"Mao disliked greatly the economists". His job protected him from Mao's policies. "Mao disliked greatly the economists - especially economic professors from America," Zhou said in an in interview. "By that time, I had shifted to the line of language and writing ... If I had remained in Shanghai teaching economics, I think I certainly could have been imprisoned for 20 years."
Chinese labour camp. But in 1969. accused of being a reactionary academic, he was sent to work in a labour camp where he worked in the rice fields. He spent more than two years there.
Once he was released, he went back home and continued writing about language.
Encyclopedia Zhou. In the 1980s, he helped oversee the translation into Chinese of the Encyclopedia Britannica, earning him the nickname of "Encyclopedia Zhou".
Critical of the government. Zhou was the author of more than 40 books, many of which were banned for being critical of the government. Around 10 of them were published after he turned 100.
He started a blog on Sina and continued blogging until he was 105 years old.
Regarding the government, the linguist told AFP: "In all honesty I haven’t got anything good to say about Mao Zedong."