China speaks multiple languages

North China provided few barriers to migration, leading to relative linguistic homogeneity over a wide area in northern China. In contrast, the mountains and rivers of southern China, particularly in Fujian province have spawned the other six major groups of Chinese languages. The mandarin group spoken in North China has by the most speakers.

The traditional seven dialect groups first published in Yuan Jiahua's dialectology handbook (1961) are Mandarin, Wu, Gan Xiang, Min, Yue, and Hakka.

Language policy in mainland China

The Chinese national language law (valid since 2001) declares and promotes Mandarin Chinese as the common language of the country. Another article declares the right of the national minorities to use their own languages and the rules of when to use dialects. The law does not prohibit the everyday users to speak their native language. The use of the standard language is also widely promoted in all kinds of media, TV, radio, films, literature, but allows the use of dialects in cases such as local operas, folk ballads, musical storytelling, comic dialogues and other forms of folk performing art. According the law of the educational system, the usage of Mandarin has become obligatory in schools and institutions of higher education (with an exception made for national minorities).

Taiwan

Before 1945, most of the population of Taiwan were Han Chinese, who spoke Hokkien or Hakka, with a minority speaking Formosan languages (aboriginals) and Japanese. When the Kuomintang retreated to the island, they brought a substantial influx of speakers of Mandarin (and other dialects from across China), and the use of Mandarin was promoted over the earlier dialects and native languages. From the 1970s, the government further promoted Mandarin, and required Mandarin for official purposes, and increased its use in broadcasting. From the 1990s, Taiwanese native languages were offered again in addition to Mandarin in elementary and middle schools. Currently, the national languages of Taiwan are Mandarin, Hokkien, Hakka, and Formosan languages. For announcements in public transport, Mandarin, Hokkien, and Hakka are used.

Bilingual education is now common in Taiwan as a way of reversing the previous neglect of Chinese dialects other than the national language. Although the mainland central government acknowledges the importance of local dialects they are several steps behind bilingual education due to the continuing efforts to establish putonghua as the national language. Many of the Chinese languages are therefore disappearing at an alarming rate although small-scale efforts are done to prevent them from being lost.

Singapore

The national language of Singapore is Malay. The four official languages of Singapore are English, Chinese, Malay, and Tamil, with the lingua franca being English, the de facto main language. Singapore has a bilingual education policy, where all students in government schools are taught English as their first language. Students in primary (since 1960) and secondary schools (since 1966) also learn a second language called their "mother tongue" by the Ministry of Education, where they are either taught Mandarin, Malay, or Tamil.

The main Chinese dialect is Mandarin. This is in part due to the Speak Mandarin Campaign that was launched in 1979. As part of the campaign, all programmes on TV and radio were only allowed to boradcast in Mandarin.

Since 2000, there has been an renewed interest in the original Chinese varieties among Singaporean Chinese. In 2002, several clan associations started courses in Hainanese and Teochow.

Although the Singapore government maintained a strict language policy to replace Chinese dialects with Mandarin for decades, it appears to have relaxed its stance towards Chinese varieties in recent years. Recently, the government allowed some locally produced dialect shows to be broadcasted in Hokkien and Cantonese.