Resolution of the State Council on the Promulgation of the Draft Scheme for a Chinese Phonetic Alphabet
Adopted by the 60th Plenary Session of the State Council on November 1, 1957
During the two years since it was put forward by the Committee for Reforming the Chinese Written Language, the Draft Scheme for a Chinese Phonetic Alphabet has been submitted to extensive discussions organized by the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political consultative Conference and local consultative committees, and examined and revised by the Committee for Examining and Revising the Scheme for a Chinese Phonetic Alphabet which was set up under the State Council. After examination and discussion at an enlarged meeting of the Standing Committee of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, it was passed at the present plenary session of the State Council. At this session, it was decided that the draft be submitted to the next session of the National People's Congress for discussion and approval, and be issued to the press for the people of the whole country to be acquainted with beforehand.
The adoption of the Scheme for a Chinese Phonetic Alphabet for the purpose of annotating the Chinese characters so as to make Chinese easier to learn and help standardize pronunciation will act as an impetus to our work of improving the teaching and learning of the Chinese language in schools, popularizing the common speech and wiping out illiteracy It is also of great importance to our various minority nationalities in creating their written languages and learning the Ran language Therefore, after being discussed and approved by the National People's Congress, this draft may be popularized by stages in normal, secondary and primary schools, continuation schools for adults, literacy education and publications, while efforts should be made to further improve it in actual work Specific methods for this shall be, with the participation of the Committee for Reforming the Chinese Written Language, worked out respectively by the Ministry of Education, Ministry of Culture and other institutions concerned, and reported to the State Council for approval and implementation.
