'China's Bill Gates' who revolutionised character printing dies

Wang Xuan, a mainland computer scientist known as 'China's Bill Gates' and the inventor of a groundbreaking electronic publishing system for Chinese characters, died in Beijing yesterday. He was 69.

Xinhua described his achievements in electronic publishing as 'the second invention of the printing system for Chinese characters' following Bi Sheng's invention of movable type nearly 1,000 years ago which ushered in a revolution in the history of printing. Wang was often dubbed the 'Modern Bi Sheng'.

He was also dean of Peking University's Institute of Computer Science and Technology, an academician with the Chinese Academy of Science and the Chinese Academy of Engineering, and a vice-chairman of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference.

In the 1980s, Wang started a small company, which later evolved into Peking University Founder Group, that focused on his laser-photo typesetting system. In 1995, Founder Corp (Hong Kong) went public with Wang as its chairman. He stood down in 1998 to make room for younger people.

Born in Shanghai in February, 1937, Wang was admitted to Peking University, majoring in mathematics and mechanics, in 1954. After graduating, he taught at the university's Wireless Electronics Department for about 20 years, researching computer applications, particularly the digitisation of words, graphics and images.

In August 1974, Beijing launched the '748 Project' to focus on the development of Chinese character processing. Wang was in charge of research and development of a precision photo-typesetting system for Chinese characters.

The Economic Daily became the first mainland newspaper to adopt laser photo typesetting by computer in 1987.