Pinyin’s corporate hits (and misses)
Zhou Youguang, the chief architect of pinyin (or “spelled sounds”) writing, died two weeks ago at the age of 111. Pinyin is the system used to write Mandarin in the Roman alphabet and has revolutionised the way the language is communicated, both within and outside China.
Surprisingly, Zhou wasn’t a linguist but rather an economics professor in Shanghai (and previously a banker in New York) when in 1955 he was asked by Premier Zhou Enlai to develop a Romanised system of spelling to help increase literacy and make it easier for foreigners to learn Chinese.
It took three years to develop, but pinyin quickly superseded older Romanised systems such as Wade-Giles and gradually became the most common way to spell Chinese names in English. It is also the dominant method for entering Chinese text into computers in mainland China, although in Taiwan a non-Romanised phonetic system called Zhuyin or Bopomofo remains more common.
Pinyin has become even more important in the digital age, and is the most popular way to type out Chinese characters on a keyboard or touch-screen device. Pinyin is entered and users are given a choice of characters.
Chinese companies operating internationally often use pinyin for their names. Huawei is a good example of a company with an easily pronounceable and readable literal pinyin translation of its name in Chinese characters. Being able to keep its original name has certainly helped the company increase its brand awareness globally.
Among foreign companies operating in China, some find it easier to stick with their English names, such as IBM, or use a direct translation, such as Apple (“Ping guo”).
Others enjoy poetic or evocative meanings with pinyin, such as LinkedIn – Ling ying (“outstanding leaders”); Samsung – San xing (“three stars”); Twitter – Tui te (“push special”); Coca-Cola – Ke kou ke le (“delicious happiness”); and Virgin – Wei zhen (“maintain treasure/pearl”).
But some pinyin names are as amusing as the English translations on some Thai menus, such as Google – Gu ge (“grain song”); Mazda – Ma zi da (“Horse self-reach”); and McDonald’s – Mai dang lao (“wheat serve as labour”).
So will pinyin ever replace Chinese characters as the written alphabet? It has many advantages – the most popular version Hanyu pinyin is in common use all around the country.
Children learn pinyin in school as it helps them to pronounce Chinese characters and it is well suited to the digital age. However, characters are still easier to use and faster to type, as well as conveying nuances which pinyin can’t. Moreover, the culture is embedded in the written language which has been around for thousands of years, and I suspect it will last for quite a while longer.