For the most part unrecognised by the international community, the introduction of Pinyin in the teaching of Mandarin Chinese to children in the initial years of their schooling in China is one of the largest innovations in the history of language education. It has also provided an example of an effective pedagogical and curricular reform on a scale unprecedented in school systems in the North and West. So the overview of policy and reform I offer here is a story worth telling. In this paper I construct a critical history and overview, beginning by revisiting the social and educational context in which the experiment was initiated and conducted. Drawing upon the relevant literature published in China and largely unavailable in the West, I then describe the fundamental assumptions and basic teaching processes, offering a critical commentary on results of the experiment. I conclude by discussing implications of the Pinyin initiative for the wider language and literacy education community.