Chinese Pinyin

Pinyin, more formally Hanyu pinyin, is the most commonly used romanization system for Standard Mandarin. Hanyu means the Chinese language, and pinyin means "spell sound", or the spelling of the sound. Developed by a government committee in the People's Republic of China, the system was initially approved by the Chinese government on February 11, 1958 . The International Organization for Standardization adopted pinyin as the international standard in 1979, and since then it has been adopted by many organizations worldwide. It will also be the official romanization system in the Republic of China (Taiwan) starting in 2009 . It is used to teach Chinese schoolchildren and foreign learners the standard pronunciation of Mandarin Chinese, to spell Chinese names in foreign publications and to enter Chinese characters on computers.