His 111 Years with this life was remarkable though he's not with us anymore but his life changed the world for well over 2,000,000,000 people.
Imagine just after the biggest war the world has ever known, you miraculously come out of it with the knowledge that will unify not only your country but connect it with the rest of the world and make understanding easier.
He was brilliant and a linguist and Chairman Mao picked him to revolutionize the Chinese language and make it available to the world one day. Well chairman Mao ay not have been around to the day China took the world but we're alive and watching it unfold. Those Westerners in China now will relate that without Pin Yin we'd all pretty much be screwed.
Here's an example.
He lived a humble life even after his amazing accomplishments.
"But despite his age, Zhou still lives in a modest third-floor walk-up. He's frail but chipper, as he receives guests in his book-lined study. He laughs cheerfully as he reminisces, despite his complaints that "after 100, the memory starts to fail a bit."
(https://www.npr.org/2011/10/19/141503738/at-105-celebrated-chinese-linguist-now-a-dissident)
A photo of him and his wife in 1938, cameras weren't all the common back then, especially in China while much of it was under Japanese rule.
He was a member of the China Democratic National Construction Association , a political party which fell under the umbrella of the government that still stands today.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/China_Democratic_National_Construction_Association)
He went to Japan to study in his early life as was the thing to do for people in his realm at the time but he was truly a Marxist and lost favour in Japan with his Japanese mentors.
"Zhou started as an exchange student at the University of Tokyo, later transferring to Kyoto University due to his admiration of the Japanese Marxist economist Hajime Kawakami, who was a professor there at the time. Kawakami's arrest for joining the outlawed Japanese Communist Party in January 1933, however, meant that Zhou could not be his student. Zhou's son, Zhou Xiaoping (周晓平), was born in 1934. Later, the couple also had a daughter, Zhou Xiaohe (周小禾)."
He must have led an interesting life for the times that he lived. You can learn more here https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zhou_Youguang and here https://www.npr.org/2011/10/19/141503738/at-105-celebrated-chinese-linguist-now-a-dissident
Even if you don't approve you should at least recognize his brilliance for the times he was showing it off. Seriously this guy changed and helped modernize billions of people into a force that will stand up to anyone. Now if you could just figure out that JIE is pronounced Gee Yea and not Jie like apple pie. Simple right? It's whole new language.