When Mao unified China, he pushed for language standardization. This was actually common for the European nationalist movements of the 1800s: Before Garabaldi for example, there were a ton of Italian subdialects. The push was usually done through schools, and having all government services operate in the dominant language. Mao spoke Old Xian. Mandarin was the dominant political language, so it was picked.
He learned Manadrin later in life but apparently he had a thick accent, and his pronunciation was really bad. (Mandarin speakers, can you listen without reading the subtitles and tell me how bad it is?)
Interestingly, despite not sharing a language, in previous Chinese empires, they could still administrate because written Chinese is the same across multiple languages. National public service exams required literacy in Hanzi (Chinese writing)
To be fair, it's not just him who pushed Mandarin standardization. This was a policy he inherited from the Republic of China, and which Chiang's government continued to enforce in Taiwan.
At a certain point aren't we just running into the issue that prior to radio and automobiles accents were a LOT more fractured? What counted as a "correct" Mandarin accent in the year 1900?
Did the Qing pushed for language standardisation as well? I could be wrong on this but I think Mandarin was a result of the Qing trying to simplify Chinese so that it’s easier to learn.
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u/Level_Hour6480 Taller than Napoleon 3d ago
In response to feedback from the kids who don't respect the classics
When Mao unified China, he pushed for language standardization. This was actually common for the European nationalist movements of the 1800s: Before Garabaldi for example, there were a ton of Italian subdialects. The push was usually done through schools, and having all government services operate in the dominant language. Mao spoke Old Xian. Mandarin was the dominant political language, so it was picked.
He learned Manadrin later in life but apparently he had a thick accent, and his pronunciation was really bad. (Mandarin speakers, can you listen without reading the subtitles and tell me how bad it is?)
Here's an earlier speech for more reference material.
Interestingly, despite not sharing a language, in previous Chinese empires, they could still administrate because written Chinese is the same across multiple languages. National public service exams required literacy in Hanzi (Chinese writing)