Moses Asch produced these records with Chao Yuan Ren to accompany his book, the Mandarin Primer, written in 1948. Chao Yuan Ren was an influential linguist in the United States. He conceived and developed Gwoyeu Romatzyh, abbreviated GR, becoming the standard system for Romanizing Mandarin text in 1928 until it was replaced by Hanyu Pinyin in 1958. The notes that accompany this album utilize GR, demonstrating the use of "tone spelling" for Romanization. This album shows an important landmark in the development of the Romanization of the Chinese language.