Methods of Transliteration In the English-speaking world, since 1892, Chinese words (except personal and place-names) have usually been transliterated according to a phonetic spelling system called Wade-Giles romanization, propounded by Sir Thomas Wade (1818-95) and Herbert Giles (1845-1935). Personal names were romanized according to individual wishes, however, and place-names followed the nonsystematic spellings of the Chinese Post Office. Since 1958 another phonetic romanization known as Pinyin ("spelling") has had official standing in the People's Republic of China, where it is used for telegrams and in primary education.

Replacement of the traditional characters by Pinyin has been advocated but is unlikely to be carried through completely because of the threat it poses to literature and historical documentation in the classical language. Simplification of the sound system through time, with the resultant homonyms, has made the terse classical style unintelligible when transcribed in an alphabetic script. Since Jan. 1, 1979, Xinhua (New China News Agency) has used Pinyin in all dispatches to foreign countries. The U. S. government, many scholarly publications, and newspapers such as the New York Times have also adopted the Pinyin system, as has the Funk & Wagnall's New Encyclopedia.