Is Wu Chinese written the same as Mandarin?

Answer 1

Nowadays Wu Chinese is rarely written; speakers generally use Standard Vernacular Mandarin for writing. There are old poems, songs, and novels from Ming-Qing dynasty times that were written in Wu Chinese based mostly on the Suzhou dialect, but the tradition is mostly dead now, except in niche linguistic circles.

倷阿是苏州人？= Suzhou Wu Chinese 'Are you from Suzhou？(ne a zi soutseunin?)

侬是苏州人o伐？= Shanghai Wu Chinese for same sentence (non zi sutseunin va?)

你是苏州人吗？= Standard Written Chinese （Mandarin) for the same sentence (ni shi suzhouren ma?)

The Suzhou and Shanghai versions of the sentence given above are mutually intelligible, but not with the Mandarin version. Nevertheless, rarely will you see them written out as above; people simply use common written modern Chinese based on Putonghua (Standard Mandarin).