“Sing Out Joyfully” Bk. Partially Proofread Pīnyīn Web Material or More Available for Songs for June 18–July 8 Mandarin Meetings

(NOTE: Re the valid general concerns expressed here about posting official publications to the Internet, there are good reasons for concluding that those concerns do not apply to this particular material. See this disclaimer for more information.)

Thankfully, an official Pīnyīn PDF file for the current songbook “Sing Out Joyfully” to Jehovah (sjj) is now available for download from jw.org. (The short link for the new songbook, tiandi.info/sjj, has been updated accordingly.) Note, however, that the currently available official Pīnyīn PDF file only contains lyrics—it does not contain musical notation.

While we greatly appreciate the official Pīnyīn songbook PDF file that is available, the PDF format itself was conceived of in a world dominated by paper. Unfortunately, that means that PDF files are often not optimal for reading on the mobile devices that are now so prevalent among Mandarin field publishers.

Also, having to share limited display real estate with Chinese characters (and, in the past, musical notation) can in certain situations force the Pīnyīn text to be rendered in small type that can be difficult to read, especially for older people.

Another difficulty that is encountered, especially when one needs to quickly find the song that is about to be sung at a meeting, is that the official meeting schedules only list the numbers of the songs to be used, and the brothers announcing what song is about to be sung often only mention the song number, but in the current official Pīnyīn songbook PDF file, there is no listing of song links in song number order.

Partially proofread Pīnyīn web material (better than auto-generated Pīnyīn like that displayed by the Equipd app, and more mobile-friendly than the older 3-line PDFs) or more for all the songs scheduled to be used during the June 18–July 8 Mandarin Our Christian Life and Ministry and “Watchtower” Study meetings has been posted to this resource that seeks to help with these challenges:

• “Sing Out Joyfully” Bk.
  (Pīnyīn+Music, Pīnyīn Plus, Web)
  (proofread, mobile-friendly,
  links for getting around,
  song links sorted by number;
  Pīnyīn+Music: prezoomed to use full screen width,
  easy-to-read font,
  guitar chords included;
  Pīnyīn Plus: flashcards integrated with the text,
  carefully done human-translated
  context-appropriate English translations
  with literal & effective meanings,
  Simplified & Traditional characters,
  📖 Reveal All, 📄 Reveal Advanced, and
  📘 Reveal None controls
  for all the “flashcards” in a
  song, paragraph, etc.,
  Night Theme that can be turned on or off
  using the ☀️/🌙 button at the top right,
  adjustable text size)
  (Info re offline viewing and printing)
  
• Short Links:
  Links ▶ Publications ▶ Books ▶
  “Sing Out Joyfully” Book Links (tiandi.info/sjj)

Screenshots of the above resource being used offline on an iPhone 📱, using the app GoodReader. (Other similar apps can also be used, e.g. Documents.)

Scheduling notes:

• Production of at least partially proofread Pīnyīn material (better at least than auto-generated Pīnyīn like that displayed by the Equipd app, and more mobile-friendly than the older 3-line PDFs) with a few basic Pīnyīn Plus “flashcards” is expected to keep up with all the songs scheduled for Mandarin Our Christian Life and Ministry and “Watchtower” Study meetings.
• Proofread Pīnyīn lyrics and musical notation are available for all the songs scheduled for Mandarin 2017–2018 circuit assemblies.
• Proofread Pīnyīn lyrics and musical notation are available for the songs scheduled for Mandarin 2018 Memorial meetings.
• Proofread Pīnyīn lyrics are available, and proofread musical notation is becoming available, for the songs scheduled for Mandarin 2018 regional conventions.

The Pīnyīn songbook material in the above unofficial resource has been designed to be mobile-first, so it works well on mobile devices of various shapes and sizes, including tablets and smartphones 📱. Some of the ways in which it does so are:

• Song material with musical notation 🎼 automatically loads “prezoomed” to take full advantage of the width of your device’s display, so as to render its Pīnyīn lyrics in as large a size as possible.
• In the song material with musical notation 🎼, the typeface (font) chosen for the Pīnyīn lyrics is one that is especially legible at smaller text sizes.
• The lyrics-only material uses Pīnyīn Plus technology, so the text automatically reflows according to the width of the display. Also, the text can be set to different sizes by the user, and a Night Theme is available. As time allows, more Pīnyīn Plus “flashcards” will be added, with their English translations, Chinese characters, etc.

The introduction for the above resource explains why it’s good to use Pīnyīn as a writing system on its own.

In the material with musical notation in the above resource, the Pīnyīn lyrics do not have Pīnyīn Plus “flashcard” functionality because they need to stay aligned with the musical notation. As time allows, Pīnyīn lyrics will be presented on their own as well, using Pīnyīn Plus technology. This will allow for the adding of Pīnyīn Plus “flashcards” with English translations, Chinese characters, etc. in the future.

While the original intention re the above resource was to prioritize production of material with musical notation and leave off production of Pīnyīn Plus lyrics-only material indefinitely, further analysis has led to the realization that since proofread Pīnyīn lyrics must be produced in some form for the musical notation material anyway, and since Pīnyīn Plus technology is a time-effective way to record proofread Pīnyīn text, it would be efficient to first produce proofread Pīnyīn lyrics in Pīnyīn Plus format for a particular song, and then to use those proofread Pīnyīn lyrics to speed up the production of musical notation material for that song. So, that will be the production workflow going forward for the above resource.

Previously, musical notation in the above resource was taken from screenshots of an official PDF file. Note (and make it a musical note ♪, at that 😄), though, that the musical notation for song 77 marked the debut in the above resource of musical notation 🎼 produced “from scratch” to be mobile-first in design. This should provide for better and more consistent user experiences going forward, especially on smaller mobile devices like smartphones 📱.

Contrary to Rumour, I am In Good Standing

I recently got an email that included this:

last month I heard one brother say that another brother said that a US circuit overseer said you've been marked or something.

Which I think qualifies as a "rumour".

And I don't go by rumours. At all.

(Maybe a CO said SOMETHING and his exact words were munged by the next brother in the chain. We've heard stupid rumours about "[a certain place’s Chinese] group shut down last year" - it didn't - so we know how unreliable these things can get.)

So, in case anyone has heard this rumour and was wondering about me, let me confirm that:

No, I am not marked.

Yes, I am in good standing with the organization.

If any of you want additional confirmation, let me know and I will let you know what my current congregation is and how you can contact my local congregation secretary. (Once you know my name and congregation, you will also be able to confirm through the official website how to contact my congregation’s elders to ask about me.)

***

I remember that Jesus himself, John the Baptist, and the apostle Paul had rumours and gossip spoken about them. (Lu. 7:31–35; 2 Co. 10:10) Also, the world says all kinds of things about us Jehovah’s Witnesses in general. So, I suppose I am in good company.

I will try to follow Jesus’ example re how he dealt with rumours, etc. For one thing, in spite of people unjustly saying bad things about him, he didn’t back down from continuing to do what he knew to be right. As for the apostle Paul, he engaged in some “talking unreasonably”…—2 Co. 11:21.

With my involvement with 3-line, Pīnyīn Plus, and similar material, I am trying to fight for Jehovah, his principles, his work, his people, and his organization, against strongly entrenched human traditions. However, if certain people confuse human traditions with Jehovah’s ways of doing things, then they may dislike, even severely, some of the things I say and do. It is not inconceivable that such ones may say things about me that devolve into accusations, rumours, etc.

Others involved in the production and distribution of 3-line and similar material may also have been subjects of accusations and rumours, e.g., “3-liners are apostates!” “3-liners are disloyal to the organization!” “3-liners are not following theocratic order!” etc. (See this disclaimer for reasons why such rumours are not true, and why they reflect misunderstandings about the nature and purpose of 3-line and similar material.)

It is not surprising that accusations and rumours swirl around 3-line and similar material, since by its very nature and its very existence, such material challenges traditional Chinese language instruction and traditional Chinese literature design. It’s a fair and non hostile challenge, but because of imperfect human nature, people who support and perhaps personally benefit from traditions (e.g., if they have staked their status on traditions) sometimes feel threatened by innovations, and so, they may resort to accusations and rumours, and sometimes even more drastic responses.

(Of course, this is not to say that traditional, characters-only material should be done away with at this time—that is still obviously the best material for anyone who has a Chinese mother tongue and who is already familiar with characters. However, publishers who are trying to learn one of the Chinese languages for the ministry should have the most effective options it turns out to be possible to make available, whether these follow human traditions or not—love for human traditions should not be allowed to override love for Jehovah and love for our neighbours.)

I am encouraged by things I’ve heard about the organization in general being firmly set against human traditions that are out of harmony with Jehovah’s ways and that unnecessarily obstruct Jehovah’s work. However, the traditions involving Chinese characters (Characters first! Characters only! Characters forever!, etc.) are among the most strongly entrenched human cultural traditions of all. (2 Co. 10:4, 5) So, they may be among the hardest traditions to fight against, and among the last to even be recognized as a problem in some situations by the earthly part of the organization in general. (Of course, those in the heavenly part are not unduly impressed by any human traditions, no matter how how old and hallowed they may be among humans.) For now, many humans, even within the organization, still consider the traditions involving Chinese characters to be “normal”, “just the way it is, the way it must be”, and they, like others before them, may in various ways work against any who dare suggest otherwise.

To be clear, this is not baseless, abstract theorizing—I am not just trying to start a rumour of my own about how the above-mentioned rumour about me started, because I don’t know for sure. (That’s often the case with rumours—unfortunately, in any group of still-imperfect humans, even among Jesus’ true followers spoken of in the Bible, whispers and gossip may be spread behind one’s back, depriving one of the opportunity to face one’s accusers and perhaps refute their claims.)

However, I do think it’s important for those of us working in the Chinese fields to at least be aware that opposition to innovation from characters-loving traditionalists is really a thing. It really happens in the world—otherwise the early government of the People’s Republic Of China may have succeeded in its original plan to fight illiteracy and to ease and speed progress by basically replacing characters with Pīnyīn—and I have also personally really encountered such traditionalist, protectionist attitudes and behaviour in the Chinese fields.

However, as Jesus said, we true worshippers must worship with spirit and truth, not with human traditions and human “politics” (and the erroneous accusations and rumours that can result).—Joh. 4:23, 24.

When we hear of rumours, etc., we each need to use spirit and truth to evaluate them, “For the ear tests words just as the tongue tastes food.”—Job 34:3.

And ultimately, as Jesus said, “wisdom is proved righteous by all its children [ftn.: ‘is vindicated by its results’].”—Lu. 7:35.

Your loyal brother and fellow worker,
Wayne Wong

“Sing Out Joyfully” Bk. Partially Proofread Pīnyīn Web Material or More Available for Songs for June 11–17 Mandarin Meetings

(NOTE: Re the valid general concerns expressed here about posting official publications to the Internet, there are good reasons for concluding that those concerns do not apply to this particular material. See this disclaimer for more information.)

Thankfully, an official Pīnyīn PDF file for the current songbook “Sing Out Joyfully” to Jehovah (sjj) is now available for download from jw.org. (The short link for the new songbook, tiandi.info/sjj, has been updated accordingly.) Note, however, that the currently available official Pīnyīn PDF file only contains lyrics—it does not contain musical notation.

While we greatly appreciate the official Pīnyīn songbook PDF file that is available, the PDF format itself was conceived of in a world dominated by paper. Unfortunately, that means that PDF files are often not optimal for reading on the mobile devices that are now so prevalent among Mandarin field publishers.

Also, having to share limited display real estate with Chinese characters (and, in the past, musical notation) can in certain situations force the Pīnyīn text to be rendered in small type that can be difficult to read, especially for older people.

Another difficulty that is encountered, especially when one needs to quickly find the song that is about to be sung at a meeting, is that the official meeting schedules only list the numbers of the songs to be used, and the brothers announcing what song is about to be sung often only mention the song number, but in the current official Pīnyīn songbook PDF file, there is no listing of song links in song number order.

Partially proofread Pīnyīn web material (better than auto-generated Pīnyīn like that displayed by the Equipd app, and more mobile-friendly than the older 3-line PDFs) or more for all the songs scheduled to be used during the June 11–17 Mandarin Our Christian Life and Ministry and “Watchtower” Study meetings has been posted to this resource that seeks to help with these challenges:

• “Sing Out Joyfully” Bk.
  (Pīnyīn+Music, Pīnyīn Plus, Web)
  (proofread, mobile-friendly,
  links for getting around,
  song links sorted by number;
  Pīnyīn+Music: prezoomed to use full screen width,
  easy-to-read font,
  guitar chords included;
  Pīnyīn Plus: flashcards integrated with the text,
  carefully done human-translated
  context-appropriate English translations
  with literal & effective meanings,
  Simplified & Traditional characters,
  📖 Reveal All, 📄 Reveal Advanced, and
  📘 Reveal None controls
  for all the “flashcards” in a
  song, paragraph, etc.,
  Night Theme that can be turned on or off
  using the ☀️/🌙 button at the top right,
  adjustable text size)
  (Info re offline viewing and printing)
  
• Short Links:
  Links ▶ Publications ▶ Books ▶
  “Sing Out Joyfully” Book Links (tiandi.info/sjj)

Screenshots of the above resource being used offline on an iPhone 📱, using the app GoodReader. (Other similar apps can also be used, e.g. Documents.)

Scheduling notes:

• Production of at least partially proofread Pīnyīn material (better at least than auto-generated Pīnyīn like that displayed by the Equipd app, and more mobile-friendly than the older 3-line PDFs) with a few basic Pīnyīn Plus “flashcards” is expected to keep up with all the songs scheduled for Mandarin Our Christian Life and Ministry and “Watchtower” Study meetings.
• Proofread Pīnyīn lyrics and musical notation are available for all the songs scheduled for Mandarin 2017–2018 circuit assemblies.
• Proofread Pīnyīn lyrics and musical notation are available for the songs scheduled for Mandarin 2018 Memorial meetings.
• Proofread Pīnyīn lyrics are available, and proofread musical notation is becoming available, for the songs scheduled for Mandarin 2018 regional conventions.

The Pīnyīn songbook material in the above unofficial resource has been designed to be mobile-first, so it works well on mobile devices of various shapes and sizes, including tablets and smartphones 📱. Some of the ways in which it does so are:

• Song material with musical notation 🎼 automatically loads “prezoomed” to take full advantage of the width of your device’s display, so as to render its Pīnyīn lyrics in as large a size as possible.
• In the song material with musical notation 🎼, the typeface (font) chosen for the Pīnyīn lyrics is one that is especially legible at smaller text sizes.
• The lyrics-only material uses Pīnyīn Plus technology, so the text automatically reflows according to the width of the display. Also, the text can be set to different sizes by the user, and a Night Theme is available. As time allows, more Pīnyīn Plus “flashcards” will be added, with their English translations, Chinese characters, etc.

The introduction for the above resource explains why it’s good to use Pīnyīn as a writing system on its own.

In the material with musical notation in the above resource, the Pīnyīn lyrics do not have Pīnyīn Plus “flashcard” functionality because they need to stay aligned with the musical notation. As time allows, Pīnyīn lyrics will be presented on their own as well, using Pīnyīn Plus technology. This will allow for the adding of Pīnyīn Plus “flashcards” with English translations, Chinese characters, etc. in the future.

While the original intention re the above resource was to prioritize production of material with musical notation and leave off production of Pīnyīn Plus lyrics-only material indefinitely, further analysis has led to the realization that since proofread Pīnyīn lyrics must be produced in some form for the musical notation material anyway, and since Pīnyīn Plus technology is a time-effective way to record proofread Pīnyīn text, it would be efficient to first produce proofread Pīnyīn lyrics in Pīnyīn Plus format for a particular song, and then to use those proofread Pīnyīn lyrics to speed up the production of musical notation material for that song. So, that will be the production workflow going forward for the above resource.

Previously, musical notation in the above resource was taken from screenshots of an official PDF file. Note (and make it a musical note ♪, at that 😄), though, that the musical notation for song 77 marked the debut in the above resource of musical notation 🎼 produced “from scratch” to be mobile-first in design. This should provide for better and more consistent user experiences going forward, especially on smaller mobile devices like smartphones 📱.

“Sing Out Joyfully” Bk. Proofread Pīnyīn Web Material or More Available for Songs for Mandarin 2018 Regional Conventions

(NOTE: Re the valid general concerns expressed here about posting official publications to the Internet, there are good reasons for concluding that those concerns do not apply to this particular material. See this disclaimer for more information.)

Thankfully, an official Pīnyīn PDF file for the current songbook “Sing Out Joyfully” to Jehovah (sjj) is now available for download from jw.org. (The short link for the new songbook, tiandi.info/sjj, has been updated accordingly.) Note, however, that the currently available official Pīnyīn PDF file only contains lyrics—it does not contain musical notation.

While we greatly appreciate the official Pīnyīn songbook PDF file that is available, the PDF format itself was conceived of in a world dominated by paper. Unfortunately, that means that PDF files are often not optimal for reading on the mobile devices that are now so prevalent among Mandarin field publishers.

Also, having to share limited display real estate with Chinese characters (and, in the past, musical notation) can in certain situations force the Pīnyīn text to be rendered in small type that can be difficult to read, especially for older people.

Another difficulty that is encountered, especially when one needs to quickly find the song that is about to be sung at a meeting, is that the official meeting schedules only list the numbers of the songs to be used, and the brothers announcing what song is about to be sung often only mention the song number, but in the current official Pīnyīn songbook PDF file, there is no listing of song links in song number order.

Proofread Pīnyīn web material (better than auto-generated Pīnyīn like that displayed by the Equipd app, and more mobile-friendly than the older 3-line PDFs) or more for all the songs scheduled to be used during the Mandarin 2018 regional conventions has been posted to this resource that seeks to help with these challenges:

• “Sing Out Joyfully” Bk.
  (Pīnyīn+Music, Pīnyīn Plus, Web)
  (proofread, mobile-friendly,
  links for getting around,
  song links sorted by number;
  Pīnyīn+Music: prezoomed to use full screen width,
  easy-to-read font,
  guitar chords included;
  Pīnyīn Plus: flashcards integrated with the text,
  carefully done human-translated
  context-appropriate English translations
  with literal & effective meanings,
  Simplified & Traditional characters,
  📖 Reveal All, 📄 Reveal Advanced, and
  📘 Reveal None controls
  for all the “flashcards” in a
  song, paragraph, etc.,
  Night Theme that can be turned on or off
  using the ☀️/🌙 button at the top right,
  adjustable text size)
  (Info re offline viewing and printing)
  
• Short Links:
  Links ▶ Publications ▶ Books ▶
  “Sing Out Joyfully” Book Links (tiandi.info/sjj)

Screenshots of the above resource being used offline on an iPhone 📱, using the app GoodReader. (Other similar apps can also be used, e.g. Documents.)

Scheduling notes:

• Production of at least partially proofread Pīnyīn material (better at least than auto-generated Pīnyīn like that displayed by the Equipd app, and more mobile-friendly than the older 3-line PDFs) with a few basic Pīnyīn Plus “flashcards” is expected to keep up with all the songs scheduled for Mandarin Our Christian Life and Ministry and “Watchtower” Study meetings.
• Proofread Pīnyīn lyrics and musical notation are available for all the songs scheduled for Mandarin 2017–2018 circuit assemblies.
• Proofread Pīnyīn lyrics and musical notation are available for the songs scheduled for Mandarin 2018 Memorial meetings.
• Proofread Pīnyīn lyrics are available, and proofread musical notation is becoming available, for the songs scheduled for Mandarin 2018 regional conventions.

The Pīnyīn songbook material in the above unofficial resource has been designed to be mobile-first, so it works well on mobile devices of various shapes and sizes, including tablets and smartphones 📱. Some of the ways in which it does so are:

• Song material with musical notation 🎼 automatically loads “prezoomed” to take full advantage of the width of your device’s display, so as to render its Pīnyīn lyrics in as large a size as possible.
• In the song material with musical notation 🎼, the typeface (font) chosen for the Pīnyīn lyrics is one that is especially legible at smaller text sizes.
• The lyrics-only material uses Pīnyīn Plus technology, so the text automatically reflows according to the width of the display. Also, the text can be set to different sizes by the user, and a Night Theme is available. As time allows, more Pīnyīn Plus “flashcards” will be added, with their English translations, Chinese characters, etc.

The introduction for the above resource explains why it’s good to use Pīnyīn as a writing system on its own.

In the material with musical notation in the above resource, the Pīnyīn lyrics do not have Pīnyīn Plus “flashcard” functionality because they need to stay aligned with the musical notation. As time allows, Pīnyīn lyrics will be presented on their own as well, using Pīnyīn Plus technology. This will allow for the adding of Pīnyīn Plus “flashcards” with English translations, Chinese characters, etc. in the future.

While the original intention re the above resource was to prioritize production of material with musical notation and leave off production of Pīnyīn Plus lyrics-only material indefinitely, further analysis has led to the realization that since proofread Pīnyīn lyrics must be produced in some form for the musical notation material anyway, and since Pīnyīn Plus technology is a time-effective way to record proofread Pīnyīn text, it would be efficient to first produce proofread Pīnyīn lyrics in Pīnyīn Plus format for a particular song, and then to use those proofread Pīnyīn lyrics to speed up the production of musical notation material for that song. So, that will be the production workflow going forward for the above resource.

Previously, musical notation in the above resource was taken from screenshots of an official PDF file. Note (and make it a musical note ♪, at that 😄), though, that the musical notation for song 77 marked the debut in the above resource of musical notation 🎼 produced “from scratch” to be mobile-first in design. This should provide for better and more consistent user experiences going forward, especially on smaller mobile devices like smartphones 📱.

“Sing Out Joyfully” Bk. Partially Proofread Pīnyīn Web Material or More Available for Songs for June 4–10 Mandarin Meetings

(NOTE: Re the valid general concerns expressed here about posting official publications to the Internet, there are good reasons for concluding that those concerns do not apply to this particular material. See this disclaimer for more information.)

Thankfully, an official Pīnyīn PDF file for the current songbook “Sing Out Joyfully” to Jehovah (sjj) is now available for download from jw.org. (The short link for the new songbook, tiandi.info/sjj, has been updated accordingly.) Note, however, that the currently available official Pīnyīn PDF file only contains lyrics—it does not contain musical notation.

While we greatly appreciate the official Pīnyīn songbook PDF file that is available, the PDF format itself was conceived of in a world dominated by paper. Unfortunately, that means that PDF files are often not optimal for reading on the mobile devices that are now so prevalent among Mandarin field publishers.

Also, having to share limited display real estate with Chinese characters (and, in the past, musical notation) can in certain situations force the Pīnyīn text to be rendered in small type that can be difficult to read, especially for older people.

Another difficulty that is encountered, especially when one needs to quickly find the song that is about to be sung at a meeting, is that the official meeting schedules only list the numbers of the songs to be used, and the brothers announcing what song is about to be sung often only mention the song number, but in the current official Pīnyīn songbook PDF file, there is no listing of song links in song number order.

Partially proofread Pīnyīn web material (better than auto-generated Pīnyīn like that displayed by the Equipd app, and more mobile-friendly than the older 3-line PDFs) or more for all the songs scheduled to be used during the June 4–10 Mandarin Our Christian Life and Ministry and “Watchtower” Study meetings has been posted to this resource that seeks to help with these challenges:

• “Sing Out Joyfully” Bk.
  (Pīnyīn+Music, Pīnyīn Plus, Web)
  (proofread, mobile-friendly,
  links for getting around,
  song links sorted by number;
  Pīnyīn+Music: prezoomed to use full screen width,
  easy-to-read font,
  guitar chords included;
  Pīnyīn Plus: flashcards integrated with the text,
  carefully done human-translated
  context-appropriate English translations
  with literal & effective meanings,
  Simplified & Traditional characters,
  📖 Reveal All, 📄 Reveal Advanced, and
  📘 Reveal None controls
  for all the “flashcards” in a
  song, paragraph, etc.,
  Night Theme that can be turned on or off
  using the ☀️/🌙 button at the top right,
  adjustable text size)
  (Info re offline viewing and printing)
  
• Short Links:
  Links ▶ Publications ▶ Books ▶
  “Sing Out Joyfully” Book Links (tiandi.info/sjj)

Screenshots of the above resource being used offline on an iPhone 📱, using the app GoodReader. (Other similar apps can also be used, e.g. Documents.)

Scheduling notes:

• Production of at least partially proofread Pīnyīn material (better at least than auto-generated Pīnyīn like that displayed by the Equipd app, and more mobile-friendly than the older 3-line PDFs) with a few basic Pīnyīn Plus “flashcards” is expected to keep up with all the songs scheduled for Mandarin Our Christian Life and Ministry and “Watchtower” Study meetings.
• Proofread Pīnyīn lyrics and musical notation are available for all the songs scheduled for Mandarin 2017–2018 circuit assemblies.
• Proofread Pīnyīn lyrics and musical notation are available for the songs scheduled for Mandarin 2018 Memorial meetings.
• Proofread Pīnyīn lyrics and musical notation are becoming available for the songs scheduled for Mandarin 2018 regional conventions.

The Pīnyīn songbook material in the above unofficial resource has been designed to be mobile-first, so it works well on mobile devices of various shapes and sizes, including tablets and smartphones 📱. Some of the ways in which it does so are:

• Song material with musical notation 🎼 automatically loads “prezoomed” to take full advantage of the width of your device’s display, so as to render its Pīnyīn lyrics in as large a size as possible.
• In the song material with musical notation 🎼, the typeface (font) chosen for the Pīnyīn lyrics is one that is especially legible at smaller text sizes.
• The lyrics-only material uses Pīnyīn Plus technology, so the text automatically reflows according to the width of the display. Also, the text can be set to different sizes by the user, and a Night Theme is available. As time allows, more Pīnyīn Plus “flashcards” will be added, with their English translations, Chinese characters, etc.

The introduction for the above resource explains why it’s good to use Pīnyīn as a writing system on its own.

In the material with musical notation in the above resource, the Pīnyīn lyrics do not have Pīnyīn Plus “flashcard” functionality because they need to stay aligned with the musical notation. As time allows, Pīnyīn lyrics will be presented on their own as well, using Pīnyīn Plus technology. This will allow for the adding of Pīnyīn Plus “flashcards” with English translations, Chinese characters, etc. in the future.

While the original intention re the above resource was to prioritize production of material with musical notation and leave off production of Pīnyīn Plus lyrics-only material indefinitely, further analysis has led to the realization that since proofread Pīnyīn lyrics must be produced in some form for the musical notation material anyway, and since Pīnyīn Plus technology is a time-effective way to record proofread Pīnyīn text, it would be efficient to first produce proofread Pīnyīn lyrics in Pīnyīn Plus format for a particular song, and then to use those proofread Pīnyīn lyrics to speed up the production of musical notation material for that song. So, that will be the production workflow going forward for the above resource.

Previously, musical notation in the above resource was taken from screenshots of an official PDF file. Note (and make it a musical note ♪, at that 😄), though, that the musical notation for song 77 marked the debut in the above resource of musical notation 🎼 produced “from scratch” to be mobile-first in design. This should provide for better and more consistent user experiences going forward, especially on smaller mobile devices like smartphones 📱.