Query fr/ ignorant bystander

[Peter A. McGraw]

I presume you're referring to the development of the Pinyin romanization.
This has been in use on the mainland as the official system for
transliterating Chinese into roman letters for many years, though I don't
know what year it was completed and introduced.  Also introduced on the
mainland was a system of slightly simplified characters.  To the best of my
knowledge, the simplified characters are in universal use on the mainland
(for texts printed or reprinted since the system was introduced), whereas
on Taiwan the old characters are still in use and the Wade-Giles system is
still used for romanization.

Peter Mc.

--On Mon, Oct 2, 2000 12:31 PM -0400 sagehen <sagehen at SLIC.COM> wrote:

> To what degree has the  post-revolutionary project of rewriting Chinese in
> Roman letters been carried out?  I understood it to be proposed as a means
> of extending  a higher level of literacy more widely than was  (is)
> possible with characters. Did this die with the Cultural Revolution?
> A.Murie



****************************************************************************
                               Peter A. McGraw
                   Linfield College   *   McMinnville, OR
                            pmcgraw at linfield.edu