Take a look at this Chinese poem in which each syllable is pronounced as shi. Shī Shì shí shī shǐ 施氏食狮史. “Lion Eating Poet in the Stone Den” is a 92-character poem written in Classical Chinese by Chao Yuen Ren, the father of Chinese linguistic studies. As you can see below, the sound of each syllable is shi and each shi has one of the four Mandarin tones used to classify the meanings of words (shī shí shǐ shì). Even though there are tones on the syllables, the poem cannot be understood if it is written in Romanized Chinese or read out loud. The poem can only be understood if written in Chinese characters. It is believed that “Lion Eating Poet in the Stone Den” was used to argue against the Romanization of Classical Chinese. Interestingly, Chao Yuen Ren actually promoted Romanization of modern vernacular written Chinese also known as bái huà 白话 (“plain speech”), which became the popular form of written Chinese in the early twentieth century, replacing the far less accessible Classical form, Wén yán wén文言文.
