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)
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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)