Four Projected Functions of New Writing Systems for Chinese

Author(s): Ping Chen

Source: Anthropological Linguistics , Fall, 1994, Vol. 36, No. 3 (Fall, 1994), pp. 366-381
Published by: The Trustees of Indiana University on behalf of Anthropological
Linguistics

Stable URL: http://www.jstor.com/stable/30028029

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 Four Projected Functions of New Writing Systems for Chinese

PING CHEN

The University of Queensland, Australia

Abstract. New writing systems for Chinese are mainly designed to perform
one or more of four functions, in relation to the traditional logographic script,
namely, auxiliary, supplementary, alternative, and superseding. So far only
those intended for the auxiliary role have achieved success. Since schemes to
perform each of the other three functions would affect the traditional script in
one way or another, they have yet to overcome the resistance stemming from
linguistic, psychological, pedagogical, political, and socio-cultural factors dis-
cussed in this paper.

1. Introduction. In contrast to the great majority of modern languages that

have adopted phonographic writing systems, Chinese retains a logographic
writing system that has been in continuous use for more than 4,000 years. At
the same time, tremendous efforts have been made during the past century to
design and promote a phonetic writing system for Chinese. The scale of this
endeavor to shift from logographic to phonographic writing is unequaled in the
world (cf. DeFrancis 1950, 1984a, 1989; Zhou 1979, 1992; Chen 1993, forthcom-
ing). In the relatively short period between 1958 and 1980, as recorded in Zhou
(1992:214), as many as 1,667 schemes of phonetic writing for Chinese were
submitted to the language planning institution in Beijing. Given the scale of
this sustained effort, it is worthwhile to examine the linguistic undertaking, in
its various dimensions, as a case study of designing a new writing system for a
language with a time-honored literary tradition, in contrast to efforts for previ-
ously unwritten languages as discussed in Sjoberg (1966), Smalley (1964),
Venezky (1970), Mithun (1992), inter alia. Following detailed discussions on
aspects of this complex and multifaceted subject in Chen (1993, forthcoming),
the present paper offers an in-depth analysis of the major functions that vari-
ous schemes are intended to perform in relation to the traditional script. It is
established in this paper that new writing systems for Chinese are mainly
designed to fulfill one or more of four functions-namely, auxiliary, supple-
mentary, alternative, and superseding. With influential schemes for illustra-
tion, this paper discusses each of the four functions expected by these schemes,
giving special reference to the problems of the traditional script addressed by
each scheme and the linguistic and extralinguistic implications of their solu-
tions.

366

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 1994 PING CHEN 367

2. Motivation for designing new writing systems for Chinese. The

basic units of the traditional Chinese writing system, customarily called char-
acters, are notoriously difficult to learn and use. As elaborated in the liter
ture, Chinese characters are described as morpho-syllabic, each representin
distinct morpheme, and at the same time a single syllable (DeFrancis 1984
1989; Sampson 1985 inter alia; Coulmas 1989, 1992; Chen forthcoming). As
morphemes in Modern Chinese greatly outnumber syllables, the language h
a large number of homophonous morphemes, which are differentiated in writ
ing by graphically distinct characters. Literacy in Modern Written Chine
(MWC) is defined as a thorough knowledge of a minimum of 2,000 characters.
Since characters contain few reliable cues to their pronunciation,' there is not
much a learner can do beyond rote memorization. It has been established
through comparative studies of Chinese and other languages using phono-
graphic writing that the Chinese, on average, have to spend an extra two year
to acquire the characters of their writing system (cf. Zhou 1979; Wu and
1988). It has been argued that, because it is difficult to learn and inconvenient
to use, the traditional writing system is to a large extent responsible for
country's high illiteracy and low efficiency, and hence an impediment to t
process of modernization. It has also been widely maintained that the bes
solution to the problem lies in the adoption of a phonetic writing system for th
language (Qu 1931; Ni 1949; DeFrancis 1950; 1984a; Zhou 1979).
The development of phonetic writing for Chinese started in the sixteenth
century, when the Jesuit missionary Mateo Ricci (1552-1610) designed t
first romanization schemes for Chinese. After Ricci, other romanization
schemes were designed by Western missionaries stationed in China. Lu Zhuan-
gzhang, who proposed Zhongguo Qieyin Xin Zi 'New Phonetic Writing of Chi-
nese' in 1892, represented the first native Chinese to partake in this endeavor
There are no precise statistics on the number of schemes proposed since then,
but a conservative estimate would place it in the order of 2,000. Among these
schemes, there are five that are worthy of particular attention here. The first
Guanhua Zimu (GZ) 'Mandarin Alphabet', which was proposed by Wang Zh
in 1900 and represents the earliest attempt to develop a phonetic writing sys-
tem based on what was considered the standard dialect for speakers of mutual
ly unintelligible Chinese dialects (i.e., the Beijing dialect). The second is Zh
yin Zimu (ZZ) 'Sound-Annotating Alphabet', which was published in 1918, a
became the first phonetic writing system for Chinese to win official approval
and to be promulgated by the central government. Eight years later, Gwoy
Romatzyh (GR) 'National Language Romanization' was published and becam
the first officially recognized scheme to adopt a romanized script. It was gene
ally regarded as the most sophisticated, though arguably over-complicated
scheme of romanization in its time. The year 1931 witnessed the publication o
another influential romanization scheme-Latinxua Sin Wenz (LSW) 'New
Writing of Latinization', which was designed by several Communist scholars in

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368 ANTHROPOLOGICAL LINGUISTICS 36 NO. 3

exile in the Soviet Union, in collaboration with Soviet linguists. With the
founding of the People's Republic of China (PRC) in 1949, there was a new
upsurge of enthusiasm for the romanization of Chinese, which resulted in the
promulgation of Pinyin 'Phonetic Alphabet' in 1958. Among all the schemes of
phonetic writing for Chinese, Pinyin is by far the most important, since it is
the only one used in China and is widely accepted in other parts of the world as
the standard system of romanization for Chinese characters.

3. Four functions of the writing schemes. All of the above schemes of

phonetic writing were conceived with the aim of tackling the problems that
confront learners and users of Chinese characters. The solutions differ in the
type of functions stipulated for each scheme in relation to the traditional
script. In this regard, four distinct, though closely related functions can be
identified-namely, auxiliary, supplementary, alternative, and superseding.

3.1. Auxiliary. An auxiliary scheme is one that is designed to facilitate the

learning and use of Chinese characters mainly by providing a set of phonetic
symbols that indicate the pronunciation of the characters in a clear and
straightforward fashion.
As already mentioned, characters in themselves provide poor cues to their
pronunciation, an important factor contributing to the difficulties involved in
their acquisition and use. In traditional lexicography, the pronunciation of
characters was indicated by another character that had either the same or
similar pronunciation. Later, under the influence of Sanskrit scholarship,
which accompanied the introduction of the Buddhist classics at the beginning
of the Eastern Han Dynasty (25-220 A.D.), a new method of sound annotation
called fanqie was invented. According to this mehtod, the syllable represented
by the character is broken into two component parts, initial and final. The
former can be a consonant, or empty, in which case it is called zero initial; the
latter is composed of the main vowel, which may be preceded by another medi-
al glide and followed by one of the three nasal consonants [m], [n], or [1)], or one
of the consonant stops, [p], [t], or [k]. Fanqie uses two characters for sound
annotation, with the first carrying the same initial as the annotated character,
and the second, the same final and tone.2
The shortcomings of the two methods of sound annotation are self-evident:
it is not always easy to find characters that both provide the intended phonetic
value and are common enough to be familiar to most users. More importantly,
since characters have different pronunciations in different dialects, the annota-
tion that works for one dialect may not indicate the intended pronunciation in
other dialects.
Of the five most important schemes mentioned above, ZZ and Pinyin pro-
vide the best illustrations of this function. It was declared at their respective
publications that the primary objective was to provide a set of precise, dialect-

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 1994 PING CHEN 369

neutral phonetic symb

The name of ZZ highl
perform. When Piny
was announced that i
sound-annotating tool
tating function, to ex
jing dialect (cf. Proce
designing phonograph
is the one that has m
and Pinyin have becom
of Chinese characters
year one of primary
until it was replaced b
(Fang 1969), ZZ has p
language' in Taiwan s
able aid in character
mainland China, and
taught.
Another important role of an auxiliary system is to facilitate the use of
characters by providing an orthography, usually a romanization system, that
enables characters to be arranged in a way that allows their convenient and
efficient storage and retrieval with traditional printing materials and comput-
ers. It also serves as a tool for the transcription of characters in situations that
require a rendering of Chinese names and words, such as those used in relat-
ing to the international community. The familiar Wade-Giles system and the
Postal system were specially designed for such functions. As the first romani-
zation scheme designed by native Chinese scholars, GR was also meant to ad-
dress the contemporary chaos in transcription that existed as a result of
several co-existing systems. Pinyin became the standard scheme for the tran-
scription of Chinese names in 1958. It was adopted by the ISO in 1982 as the
standard scheme for the transcription of Chinese names, and, with the excep-
tion of a few well-known names, Pinyin has been the only scheme used for this
function.

If an auxiliary phonetic writing system is well designed and effectively

promoted, it can play an indisputably useful role in facilitating the learning
and use of characters, as well as promotion of the standard speech. In compari-
son with the schemes primarily designed for the other functions, those playing
an auxiliary role constitute the only category that has fully realized the expec-
tations placed on them.
Writing systems designed for an auxiliary function do not pose any threat
to the status quo of the established character script. Indeed, to the extent that
the auxiliary schemes alleviate the difficulties confronting learners and users
of characters, and address other inconveniences and inefficiencies associated

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370 ANTHROPOLOGICAL LINGUISTICS 36 NO. 3

with the logographic system, they actually

more drastic change to the traditional script, l
latter by enabling the language to be better
modern times. Given this situation, there is
part of language planning institutions to desig
tem, other than on the technical grounds of sc
or phonemic representation, etc. (for a detailed
Chen forthcoming).
It is evident from the above discussion that
an auxiliary function alone is not meant to b
sense of the word. Since traditional Chinese ch
basic units of writing, such new schemes prov
problems associated with the above mentione

3.2. Supplementary. A supplementary schem

used together with the traditional script in
latter or performing functions for which the l
Schemes of this category mainly perform
ways. Phonetic symbols are used either in juxt
ing a new type of symbol that is composed of
the phonetic symbols that annotate its sound
replacement of characters, resulting in a m
text. Schemes of this type are best exemplif
1967; Shibatani 1990). Japanese hana can be a
acters, to annotate the pronunciation of the la
beginners. It is also used to encode function
phemes as well as other words that either
representation or do not engender ambiguity a
Roles similar to those of kana were intended
in phonetic writing of Chinese, most notably Z
ample. Most of its chief designers had studie
inspiration from the Japanese writing system
envisaged for the scheme was more ambitio
sanctioned by the government. The newly desi
ment the character script in the same way
Li Jinxi, one of the active participants in this
ters should always be accompanied by ZZ as
publications. This view was equivalent to sug
trices in print be replaced by a new type comp
with ZZ symbols. Such a change would either
system that is an alternative to the character s
printing and the latter in handwriting, or, a
government auspices, constant contact famil

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 1994 PING CHEN 371

trix, ZZ could itself

On the other hand,
composed of the trad
similar to that of J
romanji in the same
the drastic reduction
erably alleviating th
mixture of two wri
better equipped to d
proper names and sci
es (cf. Wu and Ma 19
names and terms am
and chaos is incurred
considerable size of
regard to which part
Furthermore, this t
comes to writing no
forthcoming), the la
lect groups that are
Xiang, and Cantone
lects.4 Each of thes
differ most remarka
mar. The language k
Northern Mandarin
MWC, they are actu
grammar that may b
they have learned t
attainment of literac
speakers of Mandari
non-Mandarin dialec
been recorded in dialects like Wu, Cantonese, and Min. However, since the
traditional script best suits the representation of Northern Mandarin, many
words in the Southern dialects, especially the high frequency function words,
have no conventional representation in characters. As established in an inves-
tigation in Xu (1992:129), this is the case with twenty-five percent of the 200
most basic words in a Min dialect spoken in Taiwan. The past decade has wit-
nessed a resurgence of interest in writing the non-Mandarin dialects, most
notably Southern Min in Taiwan, in the context of rapidly changing social,
economic, and political circumstances (cf. Cheng 1989; Hong 1992a, 1992b;
Huang 1993). A few phonetic systems have been proposed to serve the supple-
mentary function of representing the words that have no appropriate charac-
ters, creating a text characterized by the mixture of traditional characters and
symbols of a phonographic writing system. Such a mixture of writing systems

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 372 ANTHROPOLOGICAL LINGUISTICS 36 NO. 3

in texts would eliminate many of the problems o

lects and provide easier access to literacy for nat
There are different views on mixing the tr
mentary one in the same text. While many pe
integrates what is best in both the logographi
striking a balance between the ease of writing
and ease of recognition from the reader's pe
people who maintain that such a writing system
ing and printing, and, moreover, destroys the ae
al script by disrupting the equidimentional ar
benefit acquired from the reduction of character
tial enough to offset the disadvantages caused by
1992a, 1992b).
It is clear that a supplementary system goe
problems of the traditional script than an auxili
former tends to have a considerable impact up
substituting a new type of composite symbols fo
reducing the number of characters normally u
encoding some of the words or morphemes in ph
what has happened in Japanese, where many wor
are now encoded in kana, and a restriction has b
kanji in use (cf. Miller 1967; Shibatani 1990). G
writing system for the traditional script, sch
mentary role have been typically regarded more
guage planning institutions than have the au
governmental language planning institutions i
dynasty or the Kuomintang government in Taiw
ment in the PRC, have endorsed any phonogra
tary role.

3.3. Alternative. A scheme of this category is designed to serve the full

range of purposes expected of a regular writing system, thus enabling it to
stand as an alternative to the traditional script.
In contrast to the auxiliary or supplementary systems, an alternative one
takes a more radical approach to the problems of the traditional script. It does
not initiate any change into the logographic writing per se. Instead, being an
autonomous writing system that is presumably easier to learn and use, it is
intended to compete with the traditional script across the wide range of appli-
cations that, for millennia, have been monopolized by the latter.
Of the approximately 2,000 schemes of phonetic writing for Chinese, a
considerable number were primarily designed to perform such an alternative
role. Most romanization schemes designed by Protestant missionaries in the
eighteenth and nineteenth centuries actually served as a regular writing sys-

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 1994 PING CHEN 373

tem that was used to

1948b; DeFrancis 195
mainly Wu, Cantonese
netic writing system
1892, sought to provi
Of the five most inf
Zhao, was the first s
among the literati an
more than 60,000 cop
they covered a wide r
phy, geology, botan
Zhao, it was meant t
speech for everyday u
to learn the tradition
script would coexist f
them on the basis of
Although its design
alternative one, as w
served a role similar t
teen schemes of LSW
most popular one bas
100,000 Chinese expa
Union in the early 1
na. According to the
books, readers, and r
period of time. In the
magazines printed in
The alternative wri
main advantages ove
contrast between th
nature of the latter.
alphabet are much ea
Ni (1949:141), it take
read and write in LS
days for senior high
two years to gain lit
1988:75). Second, the n
that they allow more
ing. Whereas the traditional Chinese characters are best suited to encode
Northern Mandarin, the newly designed schemes, with slight modifications,
can be conveniently used to reduce all of the remarkably differing Chinese
dialects to writing, if there is such a need.
The situation in which two or more writing systems are used to represent

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374 ANTHROPOLOGICAL LINGUISTICS 36 NO. 3

a single language (or varieties thereof) is general

recent linguistic literature (cf. Dale 1980; DeF
earlier, the alternative system is intended to coe
natural development of such a situation is the
between the two types of writings, resulting
digraphia. Partial digraphia was actually envisa
schemes in question. When Lu Zhuangzhang p
phonetic writing in 1898, he maintained that the
be used, but only for functions related to the cl
ed that while both GZ and the traditional scri
from Western languages, the latter alone shou
sics (cf. Wang 1900). A similar view was proposed
the 1930s (cf. Ni 1949).
It is contended that schemes of an alternative nature offer a solution to the
dilemma that faces a modernizing China. On the one hand, as the traditional
script has been the medium of the literature of one of the most time-honored
and magnificent civilizations of the world, it is unimaginable that such a tradi-
tion should become largely inaccessible to the Chinese people because of a
switch from characters to a new script. On the other hand, the fact remains
that, compared with the acquisition of a phonographic system, the acquisition
of the traditional script consumes too much time and energy for learners,
which they could use for other more worthwhile purposes. Digraphia, it i
proposed, is a viable solution.
While the proponents of all such alternative schemes advocated a digraphic
situation in which the proposed phonographic system is used concurrently with
the traditional characters, they differ with regard to the long-term prospects.
Some see the partial digraphia as a transitional arrangement that will ulti-
mately lead to the abolition of characters. As the proponents of LSW proclaim-
ed, it was their intention that the new phonographic scheme would eventually
become the sole official writing system for Chinese, and that characters, an
alleged product of the Chinese elite that has disadvantaged working people,
should be abolished. Some, however, assign a more permanent status to the
characters. They believe that the historical role played by the traditional script
makes it irreplaceable for certain functions. As a result, even though the pho-
nographic system may succeed as a regular writing system that is learned by
school children to gain literacy, they will need to go on to learn the character
script if they wish to engage in research in academic fields."
In spite of the ardent advocacy of partial digraphia and the sporadic large-
scale promotions of schemes for this category in the course of language reform
during the past century, schemes that were intended to serve an alternative
function have seldom survived more than two decades. There appear to be two
primary factors underlying the failure to attain their goal. The first is the
inadequacy of the proposed schemes to perform functions beyond an auxiliary

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 1994 PING CHEN 375

or supplementary one
elaborated in Chen (1
perform as wide a ra
they are poorly equipp
phemes, mostly from
tic effects they conve
entiating capabilities
script, it is difficult
than a coarse, wordy
cated people. Secondl
nese governments, as
cerned about the prQs
ble by the new schem
written language, whi
for the Chinese nation
negative attitude towa
contributing to their

3.4. Superseding. A s
traditional script, red
Vietnamese Quoc Ng
completely in North
languages (cf. DeFran
Proponents of such
Chinese characters. I
learn and use, and th
phonographic system
ety. As discussed abo
though the proponen
could at best fulfill th
For a new writing sy
fill the minimum req
superseded one. In the
medium for MWC, t
users of Classical Ch
dialects.

As discussed in detail in Chen (forthcoming), the great majority of words in

Classical Chinese are monosyllabic. Given the limited inventory of syllables,
the number of homophonic words is too high to allow for a phonetic writing.
Although it has been suggested that the most important classics in Chinese
can be translated into Modern Chinese and are thus amenable to representa-
tion by phonetic writing, it is doubtful whether the particular literary styles in
which so many works are composed are truly translatable, not to mention the

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376 ANTHROPOLOGICAL LINGUISTICS 36 NO. 3

tremendous amount of work that would be inv

A phonetic writing system, as discussed ab
of mutually unintelligible dialects in the sam
Two possible scenarios may emerge if the char
phonographic scheme. One is that in which the
the place of the characters, a single phonogr
dialect, most likely the Beijing dialect, is to be
tem for speakers of all Chinese dialects. Beca
connection, such a system would also function
across dialect areas. As revealed in Zhou (199
one envisaged in the initial stage of designin
second scenario is one in which, with or witho
ernment, distinct systems are developed for
undergoing a process of standardization, the la
fledged written languages in the geographic
dialects predominate (cf. Cheng 1989; Hong
noted above, such a scenario may be unacce
are concerned with the uniformity of the wri
guage.

In spite of continuous calls since the Literary Revolution at the end of

first decade of this century to abolish the traditional Chinese charac
favor of a phonographic writing system, it seems more unlikely now tha
before that any form of phonetic writing would ever succeed in supersedin
traditional script. Although those who argue for the abolition of Chinese
acters support the possibility of such a move by citing what happened to
nese characters in Vietnamese or Korean, it is observed in the literature t
Chinese characters were replaced only in other languages, languages th
not have their own indigenous writing systems and borrowed the Ch
script to fill that void (cf. Coulmas 1989; 1992). In fact, no instance h
been found of a native logographic system being superseded by a phonogr
system for it. It is also doubtful whether it would succeed with Chinese i
future.
During recent years, the validity of the fundamental theory underlying the
movement for phoneticization of Chinese has been called into question. It has
been argued that, although characters are difficult to learn for beginners, once
mastered, the script is better than a phonetic writing from the point of view of
reading, since it provides more direct and quicker access to meaning. In other
words, logography is a desirable feature for readers, since it offers greater
graphic differentiation and thus facilitates more efficient decoding (cf. Venezky
1970; Sampson 1985; inter alia).
Furthermore, as Chinese has become a language that extends beyond the
confines of one country, it is becoming more and more difficult, if not impossi-
ble, for any language planning institution to suggest a measure as drastic as

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 1994 PING CHEN 377

the abolition of the ch

million ethnic Chine
wan. To the extent th
as an important link a
would have great imp
munities. Any drasti
political repercussions
prove too serious to ig
that has been effecte
to mainland China in
as drastic as the abolit
able future.
Finally, with the increasingly widespread use of personal computers
equipped with Chinese word processing facilities, learning and writing charac-
ters may well be less daunting than it used to be. Since it is much easier to
write Chinese characters on computers than on a piece of paper, people who
were turned away by the complicated script now tend to use more characters
than before. Put in simple terms, computers may save characters, as Gottlieb
(1993) observes is happening in Japan right now.

4. Conclusion. While one may think that in designing a new writing system
there are only technical issues, in fact there are a range of linguistic and extra-
linguistic factors. As complicated as this undertaking may be for a previously
unwritten language (cf. Smalley 1964; Sjoberg 1966; Venezky 1970; Mithun
1992), it is even more daunting when it involves a language like Chinese that
has an entrenched literary tradition. For the previously unwritten language,
the primary goal is to provide a new writing system that establishes the first
instance of literacy in that language; whereas for a language with a long writ-
ten tradition, a new writing system will perform one or more of the four pro-
jected functions in relation to the traditional writing system. As remarked in
Venezky (1970), while political and socio-cultural factors must be considered in
the design of new writing systems for unwritten languages, they are subordi-
nate to the linguistic, psychological, and pedagogical variables that determine
an optimal system, or range of systems, for the language and speakers involv-
ed. On the other hand, as demonstrated in this paper, when the goal is to re-
form or replace an existing writing system, it seems that political and socio-
cultural factors carry at least as much weight as technical considerations in
determining the fate of the proposed schemes. Although four functions have
been conceived in the design of thousands of writing schemes for Chinese dur-
ing the past century, only those intended for the auxiliary role have achieved
success. As schemes to perform the other three projected functions would all
affect the traditional script in one way or another, the resistance they have

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378 ANTHROPOLOGICAL LINGUISTICS 36 NO. 3

encountered testifies to the difficulty of any

of a well-established writing system.

Notes

Acknowledgments. I wish to express my gratitude to One-soon Her. Thomas

Lee, Lii Shuxiang, Malcom Skewis, Sandra A. Thompson, Xu Liejiong, Eric Zee, a
Zhou Youguang for their help in my research on the development of Modern Chine
since the nineteenth century. This paper presents part of the findings of the proje
alone am responsible for the views and interpretations of data given herein.
1. Over ninety percent of the characters in Modern Chinese belong to the so-cal
xingsheng 'semantic-phonetic' category. Each character in this category is composed
two parts, a semantic and a phonetic determinative. As observed in the literature (c
Qiu 1988; Yin 1991; Su 1992; Chen forthcoming), these semantic and phonetic determ
inatives provide only a vague cue for the phonetic value and the semantic category
the character in which they are contained.
2. To give an example of fanqie in English, the sound of bite is indicated by
word b(ay) and (1) ight.
3. Guoyu and putonghua are different names for Standard Spoken Chinese,
former mainly used in Taiwan, the latter in mainland China and Hong Kong. I
called huayu 'the Chinese speech' in Singapore.
4. Some scholars in Chinese linguistics disagree on the classification of the Chine
dialects (cf. Atlas 1987; Ji 1988).
5. For example, the language planning institution of the Kuomintang governmen
renamed ZZ and GR as Zhuyin Fuhao 'sound-annotating symbols' and Yiyin Fu
'transcription symbols', respectively, in 1930 and 1940 to make it clear that they we
not meant to play anything other than auxiliary roles.
6. As a matter of fact, all year one students in China learn Pinyin as an auxiliary
system and are normally quite proficient in it. As they advance to higher grades an
learn more characters, however, they generally lose their skills in Pinyin. The regr
sion in Pinyin proficiency has elicited little surprise or regret from educators and
guists. In a sense, Pinyin is meant to serve approximately the same role in schools t
the ITA system in the United States and England did. Rather than being treate
full-fledged writing systems, they are intended to function as auxiliary systems th
facilitate transfer to the traditional writing system (cf. Venezky 1970). One of the m
reasons that such an auxiliary system fails to become a regular one is that ther
very few publications printed in it. Although some publications in China, including
monthly newspaper, are printed exclusively in Pinyin, they have had scarcely a
impact upon the general public. Without sufficient opportunity to practice Pinyin,
without enough motivation, Pinyin drops out of use before students graduate f
primary schools. An experiment has been in progress in Heilongjiang Province in no
eastern China that attempts to develop Pinyin into a regular writing system that w
enable school children to gain literacy in this phonographic writing several years ea
than in the character script. Students are encouraged to write in Pinyin from year
and devote much less time than usual to learning characters. At the same time,
are provided with a large amount of reading material printed in Pinyin. Such measu
are intended to develop their writing skills from an early age without being hindered
the difficulties involved in learning the characters and, at the same time, help to r
their proficiency in Pinyin as an alternative writing system after they have later a
quired literacy in the traditional script (cf. Ding et al. 1983).

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 1994 PING CHEN 379

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