Zhou Youguang, father of Chinese Romanization system, dies

BEIJING – Zhou Youguang, considered the father of modern China's Pinyin Romanization system, has died at the age of 111.

Born in 1906 during the Qing Dynasty, Zhou passed away at his home in Beijing on Saturday, one day after celebrating his birthday.

Zhou moved to United States as a young man, and for a time worked as a banker on Wall Street. Returning to China after the communist victory in 1949, he was placed in charge of a committee working on a new system to allow Chinese characters to be converted into Roman script. Pinyin was later adopted by the communist People's Republic and now has largely become the global standard.

In his later years, Zhou became a government critic, penning a number of books, most of which were banned.