A study of 11 Chinese neurological patients with reading disorders indicates that reading aloud a non-alphabetic script, like reading alphabetic scripts, can be accomplished using two distinct routines: one that associates a whole written word with its complete pronunciation, and one that utilizes parts of the written word. Each routine can be selectively impaired by brain damage, resulting in different patterns of reading disability. These data are consistent with the independent neural organization of each routine, and the generality of the two-routine model for reading alphabetic and non-alphabetic scripts.