Zhu ni shengri kuaile! Father of Pinyin turns 110
For parents who don’t read Chinese, we have Mr. Zhou to thank for at least having a fighting chance when we help our kids with homework.
Beth
Zhu ni shengri kuaile! Father of Pinyin turns 110 years old, celebrates with a strawberry-topped cake
Meet Zhou Youguang, he just turned 110 years old on January 13th. In his younger days, he created the Pinyin system that is used to teach the Chinese language today.
According to his publisher, Zhou celebrated the big 110 (or 111 by his counting) with his niece, nephew in law, nurse, a pink princess hat and a sizeable cake topped off with some strawberries. Personally, he didn’t care much about his own birthday saying “it is of no importance at all,” but to all scholars, linguists and Chinese language learners across the world, it should be a pretty big deal.
Nicknamed the “father of Pinyin”, Zhou was born into a wealthy aristocratic family in 1906 near the last years of the Qing dynasty. He then went on to study in elite universities in both Shanghai and Japan.
Please read more here.
Mandarin Immersion Parents Council 