“Classical Chinese in modern China”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cWhaFG31GJM

Roughly: Classical Chinese = Latin, Mandarin = Spanish. For a long time, virtually all Chinese writing was classical. Only in the early 20th century did people start to write down spoken Chinese in books, official documents, etc.

Classical Chinese survives in “chengyus” (short phrases that often consist of 4 characters—a common format in Classical Chinese). It is still often used for signage and movie titles.

#Chinese