Pinyin News

This season is the thirty-first anniversary of the reinstatement of China’s national college entrance examinations after the end of the disastrous Cultural Revolution. Here’s the story of something that happened the year of the reinstatement (1977), when Zhang Huiming, a professor in the Chinese department of Xianyang Normal College, grading exams from Xianyang, Shaanxi, and its surrounding areas.

That year, after the start of the third day of work grading the exams had begun, one of the teachers on the grading team suddenly shouted in amazement, “Come look at this exam!” There before all of us was a language exam that had been answered completely in Hanyu Pinyin. Facing this situation, everyone discussed it. Right away, some said, “This is simply horsing around, putting on a show. Give it a zero!” The head of the grading team was inclined toward this idea. But Zhang Huiming insisted on first putting the exam into Chinese characters. “Who wouldn’t allow such an exam? There’s no rule against it. And Chairman Mao long ago indicted, ‘Writing should follow the world’s common Pinyin trend [i.e., use an alphabet like everyone else].’”

Everyone fell silent. Zhang Huiming took about half an hour to annotate the Hanyu Pinyin with Chinese characters. It turned out that the exam was nearly without errors in spelling or tone marks. The score, to everyone’s surprise, was 88. The teachers who corrected the exams were all convinced by this examinee of the soundness of training in Hanyu Pinyin.

A nice story. But I can’t help but note sadly that a bunch of well-educated people didn’t simply read the essay as it was written. Such are the prejudices against it. What I’d really like is a story that doesn’t treat Pinyin as if it were merely a set of training wheels.

“GāokÇŽo huÄ«fù 30 nián” zhÇ”tí bàodào tuÄ«chÅ« hòu, hÄ›n duō dúzhÄ› fā lái diànzǐ yóujiàn, jiÇŽngshù dāngnián de gāokÇŽo gùshi. Xiányáng ShÄ«fàn Xuéyuàn Zhōngwénxì jiàoshòu Zhāng Huìmín, shì 1977 nián Xiányáng dìqÅ« yÇ”wén yuèjuàn lÇŽoshÄ« zhÄ«yÄ«. Dāngnián, yÄ« fèn wánquán yòng HànyÇ” PÄ«nyÄ«n wánchéng de yÇ”wén dájuàn ràng tā zhìjÄ«n nánwàng.

Dāngnián, yuèjuàn gōngzuò kāishǐ hòu de dì-sān tiān, yuèjuànzÇ” yÄ« lÇŽoshÄ« tÅ«rán jÄ«ngyà de shuō: “Kuài kàn, zhè fèn shìjuàn!” YÄ« piān wánquán yòng HànyÇ” PÄ«nyÄ«n zuòdá de yÇ”wén shìjuàn chéngxiàn zài dàjiā miànqián. Suíhòu, zhè fèn tèshÅ« de shìjuàn zài quántǐ lÇŽoshÄ« zhōngjiān kāishǐ chuányuè. Miànduì zhè yÄ« qíngkuàng, dàjiā yìlùnfÄ“nfÄ“n. YÇ’urén dāngchÇŽng biÇŽoshì: “JiÇŽnzhí jiùshì húnào, biāoxÄ«nlìyì, gÄ›i língfÄ“n!” YuèjuànzÇ” zÇ”zhÇŽng yÄ› qÄ«ngxiàng gāi yìjian. Dàn Zhāng Huìmín jiānchí yÄ«ng xiān jiāng kÇŽojuàn fānyì chéng Hànzì. “Shuí bù ràng tā zhèyàng dájuàn? GāokÇŽo bìng méiyÇ’u bùyÇ”n xÇ”yòng HànyÇ” PÄ«nyÄ«n zuò dá’àn de guÄ«dìng, kuàngqiÄ› Máo zhÇ”xí zÇŽojiù zhǐshì: ‘Wénzì yào zÇ’u shìjiè gòngtóng PÄ«nyÄ«n de fāngxiàng.’”

Chénmò le yīhuìr zhīhòu, Zhāng Huìmín yòng jìn bàn ge xiǎoshí de shíjiān, gěi zhěng fèn dájuàn shàng de Hànyǔ Pīnyīn biāozhù le Hànzì. Ràng Zhāng Huìmín nányǐ wàngjì de shì, nà fèn kǎojuàn, yīnjié, shēngdiào jīhū méiyǒu cuòwù. Jiéguǒ, zhè fèn fèijìn zhōuzhé de yǔwén dájuàn jīng gě fùzé lǎoshī píngyuè hòu, zǒng fēn jìngrán shì 88 fēn. Quántǐ yuèjuàn lǎoshī dōu bèi zhè wèi kǎoshēng zhāshi de Hàn yǔyán gōngdǐ suǒ zhéfú.

source: Yī fèn yòng pīnyīn wánchéng de yǔwén shìjuàn (一份用拼音完成的语文试卷), Huash.com, March 27, 2007