Is Chinese a language or a group of languages?

Is Chinese a language or a group of languages?

We must separate spoken language and written language here. We cannot classify spoken languages by spoken language itself, because everybody speaks differently, strictly speaking. Usually we classify spoken languages by the group of people, like countries, areas, tribes etc., as we need. However, we classify written language by the written language itself. That is why so many spoken Chinese and only one written Chinese in China.

Reference: New Concept Linguistics

Chinese是一种language还是多种language？

这里我们必须把口语和书面语分开。我们不能根据口语本身对口语进行分类，因为严格来说，每个人说话都不同。 通常，我们是根据自己的需要，按照人群（如国家，地区，部落等）对口语进行分类。 但是，我们是根据书面语本身对书面语进行分类。 这就是为什么中国有这么多种口语，而只有一种书面语。

参考：新概念语言学