Learning More About Pinyin and the Genius Behind It

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I think one of the biggest problems of Filipino-Chinese schools and their Chinese education is the method. I remembered how we were taught zhuyin and pinyin wasn't really taught. We had to memorize long sentences. More often, Chinese language teachers tend to act like we were in China than the Philippines. It wasn't until later that I developed an interest in learning Mandarin. I developed a sudden taste for Chinese media. It was there I learned about the existence of another dialect known as Cantonese. Pinyin was barely taught. Instead, we were taught zhuyin which was still widely used in Taiwan. Zhuyin was the standard Chinese alphabet. Then there was pinyin which is the proper Romanization. 

We need to take a look at the history of pinyin with the late Zhou Yougang. He was born on January 13, 1906, and died on January 14, 2017. As I was using the Tao Li, I got curious and Googled the inventor of Pinyin. I'd dare say that the inventor himself is a plain genius. I do have a hard time believing he died at 111 years old since I have no relatives who died beyond the 100s. Pretty much, all of the younger photos of Zhou are now vintage photos. 


Pinyin and zhuyin both have a very divisive history. Back then, I had no idea how to do pinyin so I did romanizing wrong. The Chinese teachers hardly taught it back then. Instead, we had to settle for the bopomofo using the zhuyin. I even read how Taiwan did have some issues with pinyin as a "Communist invention". I read this from the Hutong School website: 

The split in Zhuyin versus Pinyin is almost entirely political. In an effort to spread literacy, promote Mandarin over local dialects, and “modernize” the country, the People’s Republic of China official adopted Hanyu Pinyin in the 1950s to replace Zhuyin (as well as other systems of Romanization). The ROC, however, viewed Pinyin as a “Communist invention” that was an antagonist to traditional Chinese culture. This attitude pushed them to continue using Zhuyin.

At the same time, some Taiwanese conservatives were alarmed at the ease people could learn to read without using Chinese characters! They didn’t consider this “legitimate learning” and forbid using this method to promote “full literacy.” Both Bopomofo and GR were restricted to annotating the pronunciation of Chinese characters. Bopomofo was renamed as 注音符號 Zhùyīn Fúhào/Juhin Fwuhaw “National Phonetic Symbols” to emphasize its new, restricted role.

I think it's because Taiwan has tense relations with China. Many times, I feel Taiwan is still considered the true home of Chinese culture. Some of the multinational Chinese cuisines come from Taiwan or Hong Kong--two countries frequently bullied by Communist China. Yet, I'm glad that some Taiwanese conservatives saw the ease pinyin could bring. If only earlier Taiwanese politicians saw that the inventor of pinyin himself was also a victim of Communist China. Zhou was practically a victim of Mao Zedong's brutal regime during the 1950s but lived to tell about it. Liu Shaoqi wasn't so lucky as he ended up dying in jail. Later, Zhou became a vocal critic of Chinese corruption even after being re-educated during the Cultural Revolution. 

The big advantage of pinyin is that it's more open to non-Chinese speakers. One thing worth noting is that some Filipino-Chinese are only Chinese by blood. I, for one, even struggle with learning what's often called standard Chinese or 化语 (huá yǔ or hua2 yu3). Also, most keyboards are using the English alphabet. It would be easier for non-Chinese speakers to slowly learn how to type in Chinese than if they had to look for a specialized keyboard. It's like I just need to type the pinyin and find the Chinese character I want. It's unlike zhuyin which requires to start all over from square one.

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