FILE – Zhou Youguang, the father of China's Pinyin writing system, at his study in Beijing, Dec. 2, 2011. Adopted in 1958, Zhou's method did not replace traditional Chinese characters but eased the study of the language, standardized the western spelling of proper nouns, and remains used by hundreds of millions today. He died on Jan. 14, 2017 in Beijing, at age 111. (Shiho Fukada/The New York Times) XNYT1 XNYT1
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