The Communist government of China introduced Pinyin in schools in 1958. The international community eventually adopted it as the standard romanization for Chinese writing, as well, with the U.N. doing so in 1986.

What is Pinyin and when was it created?

Zhou Youguang, who in 1958 invented Pinyin, the romanized spelling system that linked ancient Chinese writing to the modern age, died Saturday in Beijing. The system forever changed how the world learns and types Chinese. ... The Chinese characters are also spelled out in pinyin, the romanization of the language.

Why was Pinyin created?

Pinyin was developed in the 1950s to help improve literacy rates in the newly founded People's Republic of China. Pinyin is a system for romanizing (writing using the Roman/Latin alphabet) the sounds of the Chinese language.