PinYin - Reformed Latin-script Mandarin writing

In a message dated 2000/05/06 03:55:27 PM, Acadon wrote:

>> And we got ENOUGH languages written in Latin script
>> already.
>
>Your goal seems to be diversity per se. Yet that
>means that technology will run against it.
    Just last night, my father & I were talking about language &
Chinese. We discussed the Chinese (mainland) moving toward
the Romanized _PinYin_ system.
    Both my father & I see PinYin as a step backwards (& to the
"Western" side). But I see it's uses:
        - spreading the standard Mandarin dialect in China
            (for good or bad is highly debatable
            [personally, I identify with Cantonese
            ... tho' I do not speak it])
        - making standard Mandarin _somewhat_ more "accessible"
        to foreigners, MSL (Mandarin as a Second Language) learners,
        and, eventually, AI-augmented computer technology
        - making it easier for mass media in the West to report
        on China

    PinYin is not the best solution for a Romanized Mandarin, but
it's a Chinese solution in a fruitful road (hopefully) toward an
"auxilary Mandarin".
    PinYin could never really replace the ancient logographic (written)
language. The literal & literary riches of the logographic Chinese stretches
from the archaic Oracle Bone Script (circa 3000 BCE, approximately) to
contemporary Chinese "concrete/language" poetry. That is nearly 5,000 some
years of history.

    Maybe the "West" needs to create its own logographic system. Now
that would be a language reform. ;)

    zHANg