Investigation of Chinese reform characters /by Jane Chu-Mei Kuo.

Although the Chinese language has undergone great changes since the time of Confucius (551-479 B.C.), the basic structure of the Chinese characters has remained the same. Beautiful and intriguing as Chinese characters are, indeed, they are too complicated to learn, to write and to remember. Hence, as early as 1940, Chairman Mao Tse-tung of the People's Republic of China pointed out that the Chinese written language had to be reformed. In 1951, besides pointing out again the necessity of reform, he brought forth the proposal that vhe reform should move in the direction of latinization. In 1952, the Chinese Written Language Reform Committee was established in Peking. During the Culture Revolution, started in 1966, reform was greatly speeded up.