Zhou Youguang

Zhou Yaoping was born in Changzhou, Jiangsu, on 13 January 1906 to a Qing government official. At the age of ten, he and his family moved to Suzhou. In 1918, he entered Changzhou Senior High School, during which time he first took an interest in linguistics. He graduated in 1923 with honors. Zhou enrolled that same year in St. John's University, Shanghai where he majored in economics and took supplementary coursework in linguistics. For a time, Zhou participated in the China Democratic National Construction Association. He returned to Shanghai following the proclamation of the People's Republic of China in 1949, where he taught economics for several years at Fudan University. == Design of pinyin ==

In 1955, Chinese premier Zhou Enlai, who had a preexisting friendship with Zhou, summoned him to Beijing and tasked his team with developing an alphabet for China. Although he had only worked as an economist up to this point, Zhou Enlai had recalled his fascination with linguistics and Esperanto. The Chinese government placed Zhou at the head of a committee tasked with reforming the Chinese writing system, with the goal being to increase literacy among the population. While other committees worked to promulgate Standard Chinese as the national language, and simplify the forms of Chinese characters, Zhou's committee was charged with the development of an alphabet intended to eventually replace characters altogether. In 1958, the Chinese government adopted pinyin (formally "Hanyu Pinyin") as its official romanization system, though by this point its intended purpose was to accompany Chinese characters, rather than replace them. In April 1979, on behalf of the Chinese government Zhou attended an International Organization for Standardization (ISO) conference in Warsaw, where he proposed that pinyin be adopted as an international standard. Following a vote in 1982, the scheme became ISO 7098. Since its initial promulgation, pinyin has largely replaced older systems like Gwoyeu Romatzyh and Wade–Giles. == Later activities ==

As happened with many other intellectuals, Beyond the age of 100, he published ten books, some of which have been banned in China. In early 2013, Zhou and his son were interviewed by Adeline Yen Mah at their home in Beijing. Mah documented the visit on video, during which she presented Zhou with a pinyin game for the iPad that she had created. Zhou became a supercentenarian on 13 January 2016 when he reached the age of 110. Zhou died on 14 January 2017 at his home in Beijing, one day after his 111th birthday. The cause of death was not made public. == Books ==

Zhou was the author of more than 40 books, some of them banned in China and over 10 of them published after he turned 100 in 2006. == See also ==