'Woo Tsin-hang'
1 () (
March 25,
1865 -
October 30,
1953), born 'Wu Tiao' (吳朓 Wú Tiǎo), with the courtesy name 'Chih-hui' (稚暉 Zhìhuī), was a
Chinese linguist and
philosopher who was the chairman of the 1912–13
Commission on the Unification of Pronunciation that created
Zhuyin (based on
Zhang Binglin's work) and standardized
Guoyu pronunciation.
Woo Tsin-hang was born in
Wujin (武進),
Jiangsu province, during the
Qing Dynasty.
In 1905, before the establishment of the
Republic of China, he met
Sun Yat-sen in
Europe and joined the
Tong Meng Hui. He also became the first Academic Scholar of the Humanity Division (人文組院士) of the
Academia Sinica and a representative in the National People's Delegate Conferences (國民大會). He moved to
Taiwan and was the
teacher of
Chiang Ching-kuo. He died in
Taipei at the age of 88.
He was also respected for his various styles of
calligraphy, which is evident in the design of chu-yin; all of its symbols have the strokes and essence of calligraphy.
His publications can be found in ''The Collection of the Works of Mr. Wu Chih-hui'' (《吳稚暉先生集》).
[1] "Woo Tsin-hang," used in the Academia Sinica's Western publications, is his name pronounced in the Jiangsu dialect of
Wu.