ABSTRACT
This part introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters. The part traces the major historical precedencies that led up to the eventual creation of pinyin. It looks at the challenges presented by the Sinitic script to the development of modern information technology in China. Chinese intellectuals, eager to save the nation from foreign invasions, embraced the notion of phonetic writing by devising hundreds of phonographic scripts. The earliest attempts at writing Chinese with a phonetic script were by the Jesuit missionaries working in China in the late 16th century. mong them, Michele Ruggieri, Matteo Ricci, and Nicolas Trigault made especially significant contributions. The motivations for instituting phonetic writing in China had a lot to do with the socio-historical circumstances at the time. For the reformists, first and foremost was their desire to make it possible for every Chinese person to be able to read and write.
