> then why are they still called dialects? Things have changed for Mandarin nowadays. But traditionally: Chinese dialects are only spoken and are regional, wh

> then why are they still called dialects? Things have changed for Mandarin nowadays. But traditionally: Chinese dialects are only spoken and are regional, whereas Chinese the language (the written symbols) is national -- and very different from the dialects. The case can be made that Mandarin is now a language and has subsumed Chinese; but the rest are still dialects.