中国是如何实现全国统一使用一种语言的？

Kate Alwyn
As someone who once studied Chinese and literature in China, I was also very curious about this question. I now live in San Francisco, where there are more than 42 languages in one city, and bilingual or multilingual use in public places has become the norm. So, when I first arrived in China, I was amazed to see that everyone from university professors to taxi drivers and street vendors could speak Mandarin.

作为曾在中国研习汉语文学的人，我也曾对此很好奇。现居旧金山的我目睹这座拥有42种语言的城市将双语/多语公示作为常态，初到中国时却惊异地发现从大学教授到出租车司机、街头摊贩都能说普通话。


At first, I thought this was a language assimilation policy that China was vigorously promoting, but as I got to know Chinese history in depth, I found that the facts were far more complicated and interesting. This is not only the result of national policies, but also the product of the evolution of Chinese history and culture, education, and the spontaneous acceptance of the people.

起初我以为这是中国强力推行的语言同化政策，但深入了解中国历史后，发现事实远比想象复杂有趣——这不仅是国家政策的结果，更是历史文化演进、教育普及和民众自发认同的共同产物。

In Chinese history, as early as the Qin Dynasty in 221 BC, after Qin Shihuang unified the six kingdoms, he began to implement the policy of "writing the same text". This was not an attempt to eliminate local languages, but an attempt to solve the administrative chaos caused by the six languages of the six countries by unifying the text (that is, small seal scxt), which also laid the historical foundation for the Chinese to be able to read the text and write the same documents in the future.

中国历史上早在公元前221年秦朝时，秦始皇统一六国后便推行"书同文"政策。这并非要消灭地方语言，而是通过统一文字（小篆）解决六国文字造成的行政混乱，也为后世中国人能阅读相同文字书写文献奠定历史基础。


In modern times, the new Chinese government also realized that language division would not only affect administrative efficiency, but also seriously hinder the development of cultural level. When the new China was first established, the illiteracy rate reached 80%. So since 1955, China has begun to promote Mandarin in a planned manner and carry out literacy at the same time. This strategy is mainly achieved through educational means.

现代中国新政府也意识到语言隔阂不仅影响行政效率，更会严重阻碍文化水平发展。新中国成立初期文盲率高达80%，因此从1955年开始有计划地推广普通话并同步开展扫盲运动。这一战略主要通过教育手段实现。

China's current national college entrance examination system uniformly uses Mandarin and standardized Chinese characters to set questions. If students do not master Mandarin, it will be difficult to get good grades. And this strategy is very effective. Now, China's illiteracy rate has reached a historical low of only 2.67%, far lower than the 21% in the United States.

当前中国高考制度统一使用普通话和规范汉字命题，学生若未掌握普通话难以取得好成绩。该策略成效显著：如今中国文盲率已降至2.67%的历史低点，远低于美国的21%。

At the same time, the reason why this Mandarin promotion policy is effective is inseparable from the cooperation of the people.

同时，普通话推广政策能见效离不开民众的配合。


And, the rarest thing is that although China vigorously promotes Mandarin, it does not prohibit the Chinese people from speaking their own language in their own place.

最难得的是，中国在大力推广普通话的同时，并不禁止民众在特定场合使用自己的方言。

Before, I went to Guangzhou for a trip from Beijing. Although I had not fully learned Chinese at that time, I could hear that the accent of Cantonese people was different from that of Beijingers as soon as I got off the plane. After getting on the taxi, I told the driver that I could speak a little Chinese, but I didn't understand the local language very well. Then, the driver tried his best to introduce me to Mandarin with a Cantonese accent.

此前我从北京到广州旅行，虽未完全掌握中文，但下飞机就听出广东口音与北京不同。上车后告诉司机我懂些中文但不熟悉当地方言，司机便努力用带粤语口音的普通话为我介绍。

I asked him, if learning Mandarin is as difficult as learning a foreign language for you, why do you still need to learn Mandarin? He told me that not everyone can understand Cantonese. Speaking is not only for people in your own city, but also for guests from all over the country and all over the world who can speak Mandarin.

我问他：学普通话对您是否像学外语般困难？为何还要学？他答道不是人人都懂粤语，说话不仅要让本市人听懂，更要让全国全世界讲普通话的客人明白。

At that moment, I suddenly realized that for this taxi driver, Mandarin is not a mandatory task, but a practical tool that allows him to reach more people. I think this may be the reason why Chinese society can maintain a high degree of unity despite having so many people and so many cities.

那一刻我突然明白，对这位司机而言普通话不是强制任务，而是能触达更多人的实用工具。或许这正是中国社会能在大体量多城市背景下保持高度统一的原因。

So, when I returned to San Francisco after graduating from China, I heard various languages intertwined in the supermarket and saw "English / Español / Chinese / Tagalog / Russian" lined up on the bulletin board. I still think of the people on the streets of China. They speak Mandarin with accents, with their own life experiences, geographical backgrounds and cultural backgrounds. Although they are not from the same place, they can communicate with each other.

当我在中国毕业后回到旧金山，听到超市里交织的各种语言，看到公告板上"英语/西班牙语/中文/塔加洛语/俄语"并列时，仍会想起中国街头那些带着口音、带着各自生活经历与地域文化背景说普通话的人们。他们虽来自不同地方，却能彼此沟通。

Tao Yang
It is not very true that China has only one language, China has 56 ethnic groups, each has its own language and culture, those languages and cultures are kept until today and those people could learn their own language in school, but China has one common language that is Mandarin, child in school will learn it. In fact, for those people from non Han ethinic group, they learn Mandarin and their own languages. In Chinese RMB, there are 5 languages there, compared with USD, only English.

说中国只有一种语言并不准确。中国有56个民族，各有语言文化且保存至今，人们可在学校学习本族语，但普通话作为共通语言是所有学童必修的。实际上少数民族既学普通话也学民族语言。人民币上印有5种文字，而美元只有英语。

Bobi
Not every ethnic group has a single language; every tribe has one or more. China has hundreds of dialects without written characters. Guangdong people primarily speak Cantonese, but the majority are Han Chinese. The pronunciations of our village and the village next door are similar, but the tones are different. When I was a child, jokes about the ambiguity caused by tonal differences were a common occurrence in my village.

并非每个民族只有一种语言，每个部落都可能有一种及以上。中国有数百种无文字方言。广东人主要说粤语但多数是汉族，我们村和邻村发音相似但声调不同，童年时因声调差异引发的歧义笑话屡见不鲜。

Our town and the town next door are practically at odds, with no idea what the other is saying, yet we are all Han Chinese. Language differences caused by geographical isolation, over millennia, evolve into distinct dialects. Thanks to the internet and the communist Party's investment in basic transportation, even natural barriers have become accessible.

我们镇与邻镇几乎语言不通，却同属汉族。地理隔绝导致的语言差异经数千年演变成独特方言。得益于互联网和中G对基础交通的投入，天堑变通途。

People from far-flung places can communicate with each other, gradually forging a unified language.

遥远地区的人们得以相互交流，逐渐形成统一语言。

Zhihui xinyu
In Guangdong, where I live, there is more than one language. In addition to the most common Mandarin and Cantonese, people in northern Guangdong speak languages like Hakka, and some coastal areas speak Minnan dialect or Chaoshan dialect, etc.

在我居住的广东就不止一种语言。除最普遍的普通话和粤语外，粤北人说客家话，部分沿海地区说闽南语或潮汕话等。

Adolph Lu
Everyone in China watches national TV channels which are in Mandarin. This means inevitably, especially young people wind up being able to communicate in it.

所有中国人都收看普通话播出的央视节目，这意味着尤其是年轻人最终必然能掌握普通话交流。

Schtickyrice
Mandarin in Chinatowns can be a touchy subject, and often better to just speak English if you want better service, or at least avoid hostilities.

唐人街的普通话使用可能敏感，想要更好服务（或至少避免冲突）时往往说英语更合适。

ScottLoar
Local dialects abound in Shanghai, Fukien, Canton and elsewhere, but the lingua franca is Mandarin. A case in point: Shenzhen arose from a small village to a major urban and manufacturing city attracting workers from all of China. Although in Guangdong province, the very heartland of Cantonese, Mandarin in Shenzhen is commonly spoken by necessity.

上海、福建、广东等地虽有丰富方言，但通用语是普通话。典型例证：深圳从小渔村发展为吸引全国劳动者的制造业大都市。虽处粤语核心区，但普通话因实际需求成为深圳常用语。

Jeanpeterson Pierce
all the ambitious smart parents throughout asia and the World ensure their kids learn English and mandarin as the two most important commercial languages of the current and coming World.

全亚洲乃至全世界有远见的智慧父母都确保子女学习英语和普通话——这是当下及未来最重要的两种商业语言。

Aqey
Well, in fact, we didn't, and I don't suppose that we'll do that one day. Historically, ancient Chinese emperors just made our Chinese characters be the same, and then our currency, our beliefs(but not the religious beliefs) and our measuring units and their conversations so that make China a unified multinational country.

事实上我们从未统一语言，也不认为有必要。历史上古代中国皇帝只是统一了文字、货币、信仰（非宗教）、度量衡和礼制，使中国成为统一的多民族国家。

As for language, we have 56 nationalities and most of them have their own languages and writings. We’ve never banned them.

语言方面，56个民族大多拥有自己的语言文字，我们从未禁止使用。

The main nationality in China is Han as you’ve seen, so Chinese characters called Han zi or 汉字。Other nationalities like Zhuang, Dai, Man, Tibetan, Uighur, Inner Mongolian and so on that I’ve never heard.

中国主体民族是汉族，因此文字称"汉字"。其他如壮、傣、满、藏、维吾尔、内蒙古等民族还有诸多我未曾听闻的语言。

Although the official language of China is Mandarin, (We also have multiple dialects in spoken Chinese.) we can speak our national languages or dialects and write in our own writings at will. Even we can learn them from schools and use them in the media such as TV shows, web sites and so on, In fact, these languages of different nationalities can also be used in local official agencies.

虽然官方语言是普通话（汉语还有多种方言），但我们可随意使用民族语言或方言书写文字，甚至从学校学习并在电视、网络等媒体使用。事实上这些民族语言也可在地方机构使用。

Just remember, the nationality I mentioned is NOT means they are different countries. They’re ALL Chinese people with SAME NATIONAL AND CULTURAL IDENTITY. We just have different languages, cultures, religions and so on. But we have the SAME RIGHTS as everybody has.

请记住：民族不等于国家。我们都是具有相同国家文化认同的中国人，只是拥有不同语言文化宗教等，但享有平等权利。

Baw-Lin Liu
Normally both Hanzi and Mandarin are taught in schools. That is, educated persons above 6th grade should be able to communicate in Mandarin.

学校通常同时教授汉字和普通话，即六年级以上受教育者应能用普通话交流。

Daniel Li
In 221 B.C. Qin defeated the other kingdoms to establish the unified Qin Dynasty regime. Subsequently, the Qin dynasty implemented a policy of unifying languages. With strong enforcement, the Qin Dynasty accomplished this initiative.

公元前221年秦灭六国建立统一政权后，推行语言统一政策。通过强力执行完成了这一创举。

Chinese is an ideographic writing system, and its meaning depends on its glyphs rather than its pronunciation. So as long as the carriers on which the characters were written could circulate freely, then regions could ensure that characters with the same meaning remained glyphically consistent.

汉字是表意文字系统，意义取决于字形而非发音。只要文字载体能自由流通，各地就能保证相同意义的字符保持字形一致。

Because people's accents are constantly evolving, and the lack of transportation leads to the development of unique dialects in each region. In areas with epigraphic systems, such as Europe; when pronunciation changed, then the writing of the language changed; and from this diverged more and more separate languages from each other.

由于人口音持续演变，且交通不便导致各地区发展出独特方言。在如欧洲等表音文字地区，发音变化会导致文字改变，从而衍生出越来越多独立语言。

In the ideographic system, on the other hand, the writing of the language does not change no matter how the accent changes, so it ensures the continued unity of the writing system.

而在表意系统中，无论口音如何变化文字都不会改变，从而保证了书写系统的持续统一。

After the establishment of the PRC, the standardization of pronunciation was carried out in China in order to allow people from various regions to communicate with each other using spoken language, rather than only through letters. This is what we currently call the Mandarin or the Putonghua.

新中国成立后推行发音标准化，让各地区人们能用口语而非仅通过文字交流，这就是我们现在所称的普通话。

Allan Taylor
They didn’t. What we usually call Chinese is not a language, but a family of languages. They are only called ‘dialects’ because they share a single writing system. The system is ideal for China, since it writes the MEANING of words rather than their pronunciation—it is an almost completely non-phonetic writing system.

中国从未统一语言。通常所说的"中文"不是单一语言而是语族，之所以称"方言"是因为共享同一书写系统。该体系完美适合中国，因为它记录词义而非发音——几乎是完全非表音的书写系统。

For this reason, all languages using the system can be read by all others who use the system, even though the spoken text wouldn’t be understood. This single fact made a Chinese Empire workable from the very beginning.

因此所有使用该系统的语言都能被其他使用者阅读，即使口语不通。正是这一点使中华帝国从最初就得以运作。

But China never did, and probably won’t, ever speak one language. At best, all (or a majority of Chinese people will speak a regional language and Mandarin, the preferred standard. By my count, that’s bilingualism, not the monolingualism implied in the question. And it will work just fine. After all, a country is defined by common values, which does not necessarily include language.

但中国从未也大概率永远不会只说一种语言。最多所有人（或大多数）既说方言也说普通话这一优选标准。依我看这是双语制而非问题暗示的单语制，且效果良好。毕竟国家的定义是共同价值观，未必包含语言统一。