In August 1949, prior to the
proclamation of the People's Republic of China,
Wu Yuzhang wrote a letter to
Mao Zedong, proposing that it was necessary to promptly carry out language reform in order to eliminate illiteracy. Mao replied with support to the proposal in the same month. In October 1949, the Chinese Language Reform Association was established. In December, Wu Yuzhang was appointed the chairman of the standing council of the association. In October 1954, the Chinese Character Reform Association was reorganized into the Chinese Character Reform Committee directly under the State Council. Wu Yuzhang was the chairman, Hu Yuzhi was the vice chairman. On January 7, 1955, the Chinese Character Reform Committee issued the
Draft Scheme for the Simplification of Chinese Characters. In February 1955, the Pinyin Scheme Committee of the Chinese Character Reform Committee was established, with Wu Yuzhang and Hu Yuzhi as the chairman and vice-chairmen. The members included Wei Que, Ding Xilin, Lin Handa, Luo Changpei, Lu Zhiwei, Li Jinxi, Wang Li, Ni Haishu, Ye Laishi, and
Zhou Youguang. In September 1955, the Chinese Character Reform Committee proposed a revised draft for simplifying Chinese characters, which was reviewed by the State Council Chinese Character Simplification Scheme Review Committee and passed by the State Council plenary meeting on January 28, 1956. On January 31, 1956, the
Chinese Character Simplification Scheme was officially announced by ''
People's Daily. In December 1955, the Ministry of Culture and the Chinese Character Reform Committee of the PRC jointly announced the First List of Processed Variant Chinese Characters''. On November 1, 1957, the
Scheme for the Chinese Phonetic Alphabet was approved by the State Council, and approved and officially adopted at the Fifth Session of the
1st National People's Congress on February 11, 1958. In May 1964, the
General List of Simplified Chinese Characters was released by the Chinese Character Reform Committee. In December 1977, the Chinese Character Reform Committee issued the
Second Chinese Character Simplification Scheme (Draft), which was rescinded in 1986. On December 16, 1985, the Chinese Character Reform Committee was renamed the State Language Commission (or National Language and Script Working Committee). It is a national bureau (vice-ministerial level) directly under the management of the Ministry of Education. On October 31, 2000, the
Law on the Standard Spoken and Written Language of the People’s Republic of China was adopted at the 18th meeting of the Standing Committee of the 9th National People's Congress, and came into effect on January 1, 2001. On June 4, 2013, the
List of Commonly Used Standard Chinese Characters was issued by the SLC and MoE. ==Responsibilities==