Chinese, Mandarin

• Alternate names: Beifang Fangyan, Guanhua, Guoyu, Hanyu, Huayu, Mandarin, Northern Chinese, Putonghua, Standard Chinese, Zhongguohua, Zhongwen Also: in Mongolia -- Hoton, Hui, Hui-Zu, Hytad, Khoton, Mandarin, Northern Chinese, Qotong, Xui; in Singapore -- Guoyu, Huayu; in Taiwan -- Guoyu, Kuoyu, Mandarin, Putonghua; in Myanmar -- Tayok
• Scriptures published: Bible (1874--1983) New Testament (1857--1981) Portions (1864--1986)
• Literacy: Literacy rate in second language: 91% (Census 2000 for Han nationality). . Y
• Primary country: China
• Region: Widespread north of Changjiang river, a belt south of the Changjiang from Qiujiang (Jiangxi) to Zhenjiang (Jiangsu), Hubei Province, except southeast corner, Sichuan, Yunnan, Guizhou provinces, northwest Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, and northwest corner of Hunan Province
• Also used in: Australia, Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Canada, Equatorial Guinea, , Indonesia, Republic of Korea, Lao People's Democratic Republic (Laos), Libyan Arab Jamahiriya, Morocco, Malaysia, Mauritius, Mongolia, Mozambique, Myanmar (Burma), Philippines, Russian Federation, Singapore, Taiwan, Republic of China, Thailand, United Kingdom, United States, Viet Nam, Zambia
• Religion: Traditional religion, Confucianist, Daoist, Buddhist, Muslim (Hui), Jewish, Christian
• Status: De facto national language in China; Statutory national language in Hong Kong; Statutory national language in Macao; Statutory national working language in Malaysia; Recognized language in Singapore; De facto national language in Taiwan
• Number of users: 847,755,970 (840,000,000 in China (2000 census); 35,000; 1,210,000; 4,320,000 in Taiwan (1993); 500,000)

(data from Ethnologue and other sources)

Scripture

• Faith Comes by Hearing:
• Watch The JESUS Film in Chinese, Mandarin
• Forum of Bible Agencies International: Find a Bible in Chinese, Mandarin
• World Bibles: all known Scripture available in Chinese, Mandarin on the web
• Joshua Project: Chinese, Mandarin — facts and resources

Other

• ScriptSource: writing systems of the world
• Ethnologue entry for Chinese, Mandarin — detailed linguistic information.
• Survey Reports at sil.org:
  • Chinese in Indonesia: A Background Study