Age, Biography and Wiki

Zhou Youguang (Chou Yao-ping) was born on 13 January, 1906 in Changzhou, Jiangsu, Qing Empire, is a Chinese linguist (1906–2017). Discover Zhou Youguang's Biography, Age, Height, Physical Stats, Dating/Affairs, Family and career updates. Learn How rich is he in this year and how he spends money? Also learn how he earned most of networth at the age of 111 years old?

Popular As Chou Yao-ping
Occupation N/A
Age 111 years old
Zodiac Sign Capricorn
Born 13 January, 1906
Birthday 13 January
Birthplace Changzhou, Jiangsu, Qing Empire
Date of death 2017
Died Place Beijing, China
Nationality Oman

We recommend you to check the complete list of Famous People born on 13 January. He is a member of famous with the age 111 years old group.

Zhou Youguang Height, Weight & Measurements

At 111 years old, Zhou Youguang height not available right now. We will update Zhou Youguang's Height, weight, Body Measurements, Eye Color, Hair Color, Shoe & Dress size soon as possible.

Physical Status
Height Not Available
Weight Not Available
Body Measurements Not Available
Eye Color Not Available
Hair Color Not Available

Who Is Zhou Youguang's Wife?

His wife is Zhang Yunhe (m. 1933-2002)

Family
Parents Not Available
Wife Zhang Yunhe (m. 1933-2002)
Sibling Not Available
Children 2

Zhou Youguang Net Worth

His net worth has been growing significantly in 2023-2024. So, how much is Zhou Youguang worth at the age of 111 years old? Zhou Youguang’s income source is mostly from being a successful . He is from Oman. We have estimated Zhou Youguang's net worth, money, salary, income, and assets.

Net Worth in 2024 $1 Million - $5 Million
Salary in 2024 Under Review
Net Worth in 2023 Pending
Salary in 2023 Under Review
House Not Available
Cars Not Available
Source of Income

Zhou Youguang Social Network

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Timeline

1906

Zhou Youguang (13 January 1906 – 14 January 2017), also known as Chou Yu-kuang or Chou Yao-ping, was a Chinese economist, banker, linguist, sinologist, Esperantist, publisher, and supercentenarian.

Zhou was born Zhou Yaoping in Changzhou, Jiangsu on 13 January 1906 to a Qing government official.

At the age of ten, he and his family moved to Suzhou.

1918

In 1918, he entered Changzhou Senior High School, during which time he first took an interest in linguistics.

1923

He graduated in 1923 with honors.

Zhou enrolled that same year in St. John's University, Shanghai where he majored in economics and took supplementary coursework in linguistics.

He was almost unable to attend due to his family's poverty, but friends and relatives raised 200 yuan for the admission fee, and also helped him pay for tuition.

1925

He left in 1925 during the May Thirtieth Movement and transferred to Guanghua University, from which he graduated in 1927.

1933

On 30 April 1933, Zhou married Zhang Yunhe.

The couple moved to Japan for Zhou's studies, with Zhou enrolling as an exchange student at the University of Tokyo.

He later transferred to Kyoto University due to his admiration of Hajime Kawakami, a Marxist economist who was a professor there at the time.

Kawakami's arrest for joining the outlawed Japanese Communist Party in January 1933 meant that Zhou could not be his student.

1934

Zhou's son, Zhou Xiaoping meteorologist), was born in 1934. The couple also had a daughter named Xiaohe (周小禾).

1937

In 1937, due to the outbreak of the Second Sino-Japanese War, Zhou and his family moved to the wartime capital of Chongqing, where his daughter died.

He worked for Sin Hua Bank before entering public service as a deputy director at the Ministry of Economic Affairs's agricultural policy bureau.

1945

Following the Japanese surrender in 1945, Zhou went back to work for Sin Hua; from there, he was stationed overseas: first in New York City, and then in London.

While in New York, he met Albert Einstein twice while visiting friends at Princeton University.

For a time, Zhou participated in the China Democratic National Construction Association.

1949

He returned to Shanghai following the proclamation of the People's Republic of China in 1949, where he taught economics for several years at Fudan University.

1955

In 1955, Chinese premier Zhou Enlai, who had a preexisting friendship with Zhou, summoned him to Beijing in 1955 and tasked his team with developing an alphabet for China.

Although he had only worked as an economist up to this point, Zhou Enlai had recalled his fascination with linguistics and Esperanto.

The Chinese government placed Zhou at the head of a committee tasked with reforming the Chinese writing system, with the goal being to increase literacy among the population.

While other committees worked to promulgate Standard Chinese as the national language, and simplify the forms of Chinese characters, Zhou's committee was charged with the development of an alphabet intended to eventually replace characters altogether.

Zhou later recalled that the assignment was a full-time job, and ultimately required around three years of work.

Zhou's team based aspects of pinyin on preexisting systems: its phonemes were inspired by Gwoyeu Romatzyh and Latinxua Sin Wenz, while its system of diacritics for representing tones was inspired by bopomofo.

1958

He has been credited as the father of pinyin, the most popular romanization system for Chinese, which was adopted by the People's Republic of China (PRC) in 1958, the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) in 1982, and the United Nations (UN) in 1986.

In 1958, the Chinese government adopted pinyin (formally "Hanyu Pinyin") as its official romanization system, though by this point its intended purpose was to accompany Chinese characters, rather than replace them.

1979

In April 1979, on behalf of the Chinese government Zhou attended an International Organization for Standardization (ISO) conference in Warsaw, where he proposed that be adopted as an international standard.

1980

After 1980, Zhou worked with Liu Zunqi and Chien Wei-zang to translate the Encyclopædia Britannica into Chinese, which earned him the nickname "Encyclopedia Zhou".

1982

Following a vote in 1982, the scheme became ISO 7098.

Since its initial promulgation, pinyin has largely replaced older systems like Gwoyeu Romatzyh and Wade–Giles.

As happened with many other intellectuals, Zhou was sent down to the countryside during the Cultural Revolution, where he spent two years in a labor camp.

2003

Zhou continued writing and publishing after the creation of pinyin; for example, his book The Historical Evolution of Chinese Languages and Scripts, translated into English by Zhang Liqing, was published in 2003.

Beyond the age of 100, he published ten books, some of which have been banned in China.

2011

During a 2011 interview with NPR, Zhou said that he hoped to see the day China changed its position on the Tiananmen Square killings in 1989, an event he said had ruined Deng Xiaoping's reputation as a reformer.

He became an advocate of political reform and democracy in China, and was critical of the Communist Party of China's attacks on traditional Chinese culture when it came into power.

2013

In early 2013, Zhou and his son were interviewed by Adeline Yen Mah at their home in Beijing.

Mah documented the visit on video, during which she presented Zhou with a pinyin game for the iPad that she had created.

2016

Zhou became a supercentenarian on 13 January 2016 when he reached the age of 110.

2017

Zhou died on 14 January 2017 at his home in Beijing, one day after his 111th birthday.