Keeping alive a dying language

Motivating mentor: Shi himself had learnt Manchu from the older residents and is determined that the language must not become extinct. – AFP

Spoken by China’s upper class up to a century ago, the country’s only Manchu speakers now are a handful of old people trying desperately to teach their mother tongue to the younger generation.

IT was the language of China’s last imperial dynasty which ruled a vast kingdom for nearly three centuries. But 71-year-old Ji Jinlu is among only a handful of native Manchu speakers left.