Fu Maoji (; 1911–1988) was a Chinese linguist. With Luo Changpei, he led the development of writing systems for national minority

languages of China There are several hundred languages in the People's Republic of China. The predominant language is Standard Chinese, which is based on Beijing dialect, Beijingese, but there are hundreds of related Chinese languages, collectively known as ''Hany ...

. He married Xu Lin, a linguist. Fu obtained a degree in linguistics at

Peking University Peking University (PKU) is a Public university, public Types of universities and colleges in China#By designated academic emphasis, university in Haidian, Beijing, China. It is affiliated with and funded by the Ministry of Education of the Peop ...

in 1939 and in 1948 went to the

University of Cambridge The University of Cambridge is a Public university, public collegiate university, collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209, the University of Cambridge is the List of oldest universities in continuous operation, wo ...

, where he obtained his doctorate in 1950 with a thesis on the grammar of the Yi language. In April 1952, he became chair of the Department of Minority Languages of the Institute of Linguistics. In 1955, he organized the Institute of Minority Languages under the auspices of the

Chinese Academy of Sciences The Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS; ) is the national academy for natural sciences and the highest consultancy for science and technology of the People's Republic of China. It is the world's largest research organization, with 106 research i ...

, becoming the vice director in 1956.

References

* * National University of Peking alumni 1911 births 1988 deaths Writing systems of Asia {{China-linguist-stub