ZHOU Youguang adalah penyelamat bagi warga Tiongkok berkat penemuannya di bidang linguistik yang disebut Pinyin. Sistem linguistik itu diciptakan guna memudahkan aksara Tionghoa untuk ditulis ke dalam huruf Latin.
Tokoh yang dikenal juga sebagai “Bapak Pinyin” itu meninggal di usianya yang ke-111 tahun pada 14 Januari 2017 lalu. Tepat sehari setelah hari ulang tahunnya.
Sempat mengenyam pendidikan di St. John’s di Shanghai, Zhou Youguang ternyata mengambil studi ekonomi. Hal itu sangat berbeda dengan apa yang kemudian digelutinya hingga menjadi salah satu tokoh terpenting dalam sejarah Tiongkok. Setelah revolusi tahun 1949, ia memutuskan kembali ke negara asalnya.
Meski Zhou Youguang dikenal sangat berjasa, ia menjadi musuh bagi pemerintahan di Tiongkok. Di tahun-tahun berikutnya, dia menjadi kritikus garis keras terhadap Partai Komunis yang berkuasa dan seorang advokat untuk reformasi politik. Hal itu membuatnya mendapat status persona non grata dalam acara-acara kenegaraan resmi.
Dia terus menulis bahkan setelah berusia 100 tahun meski banyak bukunya yang dilarang dan pemerintah menyensor diskusi tentang karyanya secara online. Tercatat, lebih dari 40 buku sudah ia tulis.
Seolah Tidak takut dengan kontroversi, Zhou Youguang justru mengatakan, “Aku sangat senang ketika orang mencaciku.” Demikian dilaporkan npr.org.
Ia percaya bahwa Tiongkok membutuhkan reformasi politik secepatnya. Menurutnya, orang-orang tidak lagi percaya terhadap Partai Komunis. Bahkan sebagian besar kalangan intelektual menginginkan perubahan menuju demokrasi.
Zhou Youguang telah menjadi saksi perubahan di Tiongkok . Dia juga menjadi bagian di dalamnya. Hal itu telah membuatnya percaya bahwa Tiongkok telah menjadi apa yang dsiebutnya "gurun budaya".
Dia mengkritik Partai Komunis karena menyerang budaya tradisional Tiongkok ketika mulai berkuasa pada 1949 hingga akhirnya terjadi pemberontakan pada 15 April-4 Juni 1989 yang diwarnai peristiwa bersejarah di Tiananmen Square. Tujuan kritiknya adalah untuk mewujudkan reformasi demokrasi, kebebasan pers, serta kebebasan berpendapat.
VOA melaporkan, Zhou Youguang mengatakan kepada Radio Nasional Nasional Amerika dalam sebuah wawancara tahun 2011 bahwa ia berharap dapat hidup cukup lama untuk melihat pemerintah Tiongkok mengakui bahwa tindakan keras dan berdarah pada demonstrasi prodemokrasi di Lapangan Tiananmen tahun 1989 adalah kesalahan dan para korban tidak bersalah. (Elvin Rizki Prahadiyanti)***
The man responsible for developing the phonetic translations of Chinese characters is being celebrated this week by Google, with a doodle.
Zhou Youguang would be 112 years old Saturday. During his life, Youguang not only developed phonetic translations of Chinese characters — meaning, he’s the reason why you say “Beijing” instead of “Peking” these days, for instance — but also authored more than 40 books, and translated the Encyclopedia Britannica into Chinese.
Youguang was born in Changzhou in 1906, and showed an interest in linguistics early on, at the age of 12. He went on to graduate from his high school with honours.
Still, although he was clearly a bright young man, as evidenced by his stellar performance in school, he faced financial hardships that threatened his ability to pursue higher education. He enrolled in the St Johns University in Shanghai in 1923, but wasn’t able to attend until family and friends put together a successful effort to fund the education.
In school, he majored in economics and took courses in linguistics.
Youguang would end up fighting during World War 2, and afterward went on to live in New York City and in London, where he worked at a Chinese bank.
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It wasn’t until 1955 when he began to work on the Romanization of the Chinese characters, when he was placed by the Chinese government at the head of a committee to reform the language. While he protested initially, saying that linguistics was just a hobby of his, he ultimately couldn’t refuse.
It turns out the the assignment was a good one, and he completed the pronunciation guide by 1958.
But, Youguang did not get propped up as a hero for his efforts. He was put into a Chinese labour camp in 1969 after he was accused of being a reactionary academic, where he worked in rice fields. He was there for two years.
He left there and continued to write about language, and to compose books. He translated the Encyclopedia in the 1980s. Many of his books he wrote were banned by the Chinese government.
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Without Zhou Youguang, the world would still refer to ‘Beijing’ as ‘Peking,’ and to ‘Chongqing’ as ‘Chungking.’
The celebrated linguist - dubbed 'the Father of Pinyin' - spent three years developing the system of ‘spelled sounds’ that is now the international standard for Romanised Chinese.
The new system transformed China’s literacy rate, providing more natural passage into the written language, which requires mastering thousands of characters.
It bridged multiple Chinese dialects with its shared designations of sound.
(Image: GOOGLE)
Today, schoolchildren learn Pinyin before characters, and it is often used to input characters on smartphones and computers.
Pursuing his love of language throughout his life, Youguang authored more than 40 books and translated the Encyclopedia Britannica into Chinese.
(Image: Wikipedia)
Born Zhou Yaoping on January 13, 1906, this storied linguist later adopted the pen name ‘Yougang’ because he wanted to ‘bring light’ to the world.
Google celebrates what would’ve been Yougang’s 112th birthday with a special Doodle which flips from Pinyin (Gǔgē) to Chinese characters (谷歌).
Liputan6.com, Jakarta - Bila buka laman Google hari ini, Sabtu (13/1/2018), kamu bakal melihat animasi sosok pria berkacamata didampingi dengan beberapa buku dan aksara Mandarin.
Jika kursor diletakkan di atas doodle tersebut, muncul tulisan yang memperingati hari ulang tahun Zhou Youguang ke-112. Siapa dia?
Dikutip dari laman Wikipedia , Zhou Youguang, adalah seorang ekonom, bankir, ahli linguistik, sinologi, penerbit, dan supercentenarian Tiongkok, yang dikenal sebagai "Bapak Pinyin".
Pinyin merupakan sebuah sistem romanisasi bahasa Mandarin yang resmi dipergunakan oleh pemerintah Tiongkok sejak 1958, Organisasi Internasional untuk Standarisasi (ISO) (1982), dan Perserikatan Bangsa-Bangsa (1986).
Lahir di Changzhou pada 1960, Zhou sudah menunjukkan minatnya pada linguistik. Ia pun berhasil lulus dari sekolah menengah dengan prestasi yang luar biasa.
Meski cerdas, Zhou harus menghadapi kenyataan dirinya tak akan mampu meneruskan pendidikan ke perguruan tinggi di Universitas St Johns di Shanghai karena tidak memiliki uang.
Beruntung, keluarga dan teman-temannya mampu membantu dengan mengumpulkan sejumlah uang untuk Zhou. Di sekolah, dia mengambil jurusan ekonomi dan mengikuti kursus linguistik.
