Pinyin: A Linguistic Approach to Reading Instruction

Zhou Youguang (Chinese: 周有光; pinyin: Zhōu Yǒuguāng) was born in 1906. He was a scholar who studied economics and linguistics. The Chinese government placed him as the head of a committee tasked with increasing literacy among the population by developing a new writing system. This committee suceeded with the creation of pinyin.

“Pinyin was put into practice in 1958, the year I was born.  It is still in use today.  It was developed to lower illiteracy in China, and it did.  I believe [the Robinson Reading System] can lower illiteracy in English speaking countries… We have one of the most opaque languages. Zhou Youguang took a completely opaque language and made it phonemically transparent. I took our opaque language and made it transparent based on the same theory. I just hope it will catch on. But we shall see.” -Martha Robinson, 2018