Zhou Youguang: Father of Chinese Pinyin 周有光：汉语拼音之父

他生于清朝光绪年间，一生当中经历了晚清、北洋、国民政府和新中国建立四个时期，有人戏称他是"四朝元老"。他的一生充满传奇，早年专攻经济学，曾经留学日本并在美国工作，50岁才半路出家，转行研究语言文字学，参与设计"汉语拼音方案"，被誉为汉语拼音创始人之一。他被称为"新潮老头"，虽已百岁高龄，每天还要看书读报、至今仍勤于笔耕，喝"星巴克"咖啡，看《特洛依》大片，时尚不落当代青年。他，就是周有光。
He was born in the reign of Emperor Guangxu of the Qing Dynasty. He experienced the four period of the late Qing Dynasty, Beiyang Government, Republic of China and the People's Republic of China. Some people played joke on him by saying that he was "senior officials of four dynasties." His life is full of legend. In his early year, he studied economics. He studied in Japan and worked in the United States. When he was 50 years old, he changed his job to study language and literature. He participated in the design of "Chinese pinyin plan" and was honored as one of the initiators of Chinese pinyin. He is called "fashionable old man." Though he is more than 100 years old, he reads newspapers and book, and writes every day. He drinks Starbucks and sees Hollywood blockbusters such as Troy. He is no less fashionable than young people. He is Zhou Youguang.
半路出家的语言学家
Switching His Job as a Linguist
1906年1月13日，周有光出生于江苏省常州青果堂唐氏八宅之一的礼和堂。除了周有光，青果巷还出另外2位中国致力于文字改革的著名学者：赵元任和瞿秋白。
Zhou Youguang was born to Lihe Tang, one of the eight major houses of the Tangs in Qingguo Lane, Changzhou City of Jiangsu Province on January 13, 1906. Besides Zhou Youguang, another two famous scholars who were committed to reform of writing system of Zhao Yuanren and Qu Qiubai were also from Qingguo Lane.
1923年，周有光中学毕业，成绩优异，考上了上海圣约翰大学，主修经济学，但对语言学的爱好让他选修了语言学。他进的是教会学校，一进大学，就用英文打字机，用起来非常方便，而中文则只能用毛笔写。彼时，周有光对语言学产生了浓厚兴趣。
In 1923, Zhou Youguang graduated from middle school and was enrolled by the Saint John's University of Shanghai, majoring in economics. He also loves linguistics and chose linguistics as an elective course. Since he studied in the Anglican university, and he could use typewriters, which was very convenient. But he had to write Chinese characters with brush pens. At that time, Zhou Youguang became interested in linguistics.
1925年，周有光因"五卅惨案"离校，改入由爱国师生创办的光华大学继续学习，1927年毕业。1927年至1948年，周有光任教于光华大学、江苏教育学院、浙江教育学院等校；任职于江苏银行和新华银行，并由银行派驻美国纽约。
In 1925, Zhou Youguang left the university because of the May 30th Massacre and continued his studies in Kwang Hua University established by patriotic teachers and students. He graduated in 1927. From 1927 to 1948, he taught in Kwang Hua University, Jiangsu Education College, Zhejiang Education College. Later, he worked in Jiangsu Bank and Sin Hua Bank, and was sent to work in New York of the United States.
周有光在美国工作和学习期间，有幸面见爱因斯坦，这种经历在今天看来，富有传奇色彩。周有光说，通过朋友介绍，他有幸跟爱因斯坦聊过两次，"当然都是聊一些普通问题，因为专业不同，没有深入谈一些话题。但是，爱因斯坦十分随便，平时穿衣服不讲究，给我的印象非常好，我们侃侃而谈，没有任何架子。"
During his work and study in the United States, Zhou Youguang had the honor of meeting Einstein. Talking about the experience today, he think it was quite legendary. Zhou Youguang noted that thanks to his friends' introduction, he had the honor of talking with Einstein twice. "Of course, we just talk about some common issues because we have different professions. We didn't have in-dept discussion. Einstein was slipshod in wearing clothes. I had very good impression on him. We talked very freely. He was easy of approach."
1949年，周有光在建国前夜回国，先后在上海复旦大学经济研究所、上海财政经济学院作教授。时任复旦大学校长的陈望道，对周有光关于拉丁化新文字的文章和见识非常感兴趣，建议他把相关文章收集起来，在1952年出了一本小书《中国拼音文字研究》。
In 1949, Zhou Youguang returned to China on the eve of the founding of the People's Republic of China. Later, he worked as a professor in School of Economics of Fudan University and Shanghai College of Finance and Economics. Chen Wangdao, then president of Fudan University was very interested in Zhou Youguang's articles and knowledge of Latinizing Chinese and suggested him proposed him to collected related articles. In 1952, Zhou Youguang publicized a book Research on China's Pinyin-based Written Language.
1955年，中央召开中国文字改革会议，从全国各地找有关的人参加会议，周有光也在其中。会议结束后，周有光准备回去继续任教，但却接到要求调往北京参加语言文字改革的工作。就这样，中国经济学界少了一位金融学家，而国家语言文字改革委员会多了一位委员、一位语言学家。
In 1955, the Central Government held a conference on the reform of China's written language. Related people nationwide participated in the conference, including Zhou Youguang. After the conference, Zhou Youguang continued his teaching and later he was instructed to go to Beijing to participate in the work of reforming written language. Thus, China lost a financial expert in the economic circle, but the State Commission for Language Reform had a new commission and a linguist.
对于改行从事语言文字工作，周有光说："我的改行是偶然的，不过我是既来之则安之。既然改行了就要认真做，当时的工作任务很繁重，我就把所有能够利用的时间都拿来补充知识。因为作为外行可以马马虎虎，但真正作为一个专业人员你就决不能马马虎虎，以前看过的名著我要重新细读。那个时候我的确很用功。"
Talking about changing his job to language study, Zhou Youguang noted, "It was accidental that I changed my job. But I am consent with my new job. Since I began my job in the new area, I need to work earnestly. At that time, I had a lot of work to do and I used all my spare time to increase my knowledge. As an outsider, you can be not so careful. But you become a professional, you should be careful all the time. I carefully reread all the classical novels which I had read before. I worked very hard at that time."
1956年，国务院正式公布《汉字简化方案》和《关于推广普通话的指示》；1958年2月，全国人民代表大会通过了汉语拼音方案决议，同年秋季开始，《汉语拼音方案》作为小学生必修的课程进入全国小学的课堂。同样是1956年秋，应北京大学王力教授之邀，周有光开讲"汉字改革"课程。根据讲稿整理成的《汉字改革概论》1961年出版，1964年再版，1979年出第三版，1978年出香港版，1985年在日本推出日文翻译版。
In 1956, the State Council announced the Plan of Simplifying Chinese Characters and the Instruction of Promoting the Mandarin; in February 1958, the National People's Congress approved the resolution of Chinese pinyin. From autumn that year, the Chinese pinyin is taught in primary schools as the required course. In autumn 1956, Zhou Youguang initiated the curriculum of "Chinese Character Reform" invited by Professor Wang Li of Peking University. The book Summary of Chinese Character Reform, which was compiled according to his lectures, was published in 1961. It was reprinted in 1964 and 1979. In 1978, the book was published in Hong Kong. In 1985, book was translated into Japanese and published in Japan.

拼音方案沟通中外文化
Pinyin Plan Communicating Chinese and Foreign Cultures
1979年4月，国际标准化组织在华沙召开文献技术会议。周有光在会上代表中华人民共和国发言，提议采用"汉语拼音方案"作为拼写汉语的国际标准，1982年国际标准化组织通过国际投票，认定汉语拼音方案为拼写汉语的国际标准（ISO7098）。"ISO通过全世界投票，使汉语拼音方案成为国际标准。从中国标准到世界标准，这是过去没有的。为什么要这么做呢？中国文化要和外国文化沟通交流，一定要得到世界认同。"
In April 1979, the International Organization for Standardization held a meeting in Warsaw. Zhou Youguang spoke at the meeting on behalf of the People's Republic of China, proposing the "Chinese pinyin plan" to be the international standard of writing Chinese in an alphabetic way. In 1982, the International Organization of Standardization voted for Chinese pinyin as the international standard of alphabetic Chinese (ISO7098). "Through the worldwide vote, the Chinese pinyin became an international standard. It was the first time that a Chinese standard became the world standard. But why should we do this? To communicate with the world cultures, the Chinese culture should be recognized by the world."
1998年，《汉语拼音方案》公布40周年，美国国会图书馆决定从这一年起，把全部70册中文图书的目录由旧拼法改为汉语拼音。这套汉语拼音方案的出台，使华夏5000年的汉字语言从此有了标准、规范的读音。
On the 40th anniversary of the announcement of Chinese Pinyin Plan in 1998, the Library of Congress of the United States decided to upgrade the contents of all the 70 Chinese books from old alphabetic order into pinyin. After the Chinese pinyin plan was released, the Chinese characters with a history of 5,000 years hence have norms and standardized pronunciations.
在周有光看来，中国语文的演变与历史紧密相关。"秦并六国，实行书同文，极大地推动了中国语文的发展。辛亥革命，帝国变为民国，提倡国语，统一汉字读音，制定注音字母，文言改为白话。1949年建立新中国，推行普通话，实行汉字简化，制订汉语拼音方案。中国历史的演变总会引起中国语文的演变。"
To Zhou Youguang, the evolution of the Chinese language is closely related to history. After the Qin Kingdom unified China through conquering the six other kingdoms, it unified Chinese language, greatly promoting the development of the language; after the revolution o f1911, the empire was changed into the Republic of China and efforts were made to encourage the state language, unify Chinese pronunciations, formulate phonetic notations and change the classical Chinese into vernacular Chinese. After new China was established in 1949, we promote mandarin, simplified Chinese characters and formulated Chinese pinyin plan. The evolution of Chinese history will surely lead to evolution of the Chinese language."