The Manchus ruled China for nearly three centuries but hardly anyone is speaking the language today. A few schools in the northeastern province of Liaoning plans on changing that, and have begun Manchu language classes as part of efforts to prevent the language from dying out completely.
At the elementary school in Xinbin county in China's northeast, pupils are having fun learning.
"More than 90% of the students here are Manchu. When I told them this was the language of their ancestors, they became very interested as they have a strong desire to know more about who they are and what the Manchu ethnic group really is," said Guang Yuyan, teacher, Yongling Elementary School.
The language didn't vanish overnight, but was gradually lost during periods of political and ethnic turmoil during the Qing Dynasty. Most remarkably, it was the 1911 revolution which put an end to China's last empire, and the Manchu language.
The Manchus ruled China for nearly three centuries but its language is facing the danger of extinction. There are only a handful of native speakers left in two places in China. This remote village is one of them.
"The Manchu language has lost its value as a means of communication...because hardly anyone can understand it. So the classes are just to help Manchu students find their identity," said Huang Zhiyong, Principal, Yongling Elementary School.
To find out more about the significance of saving the Manchu language, we went to see a researcher at the Mukden Palace in Shenyang, a former imperial palace of the Qing Dynasty. It was built in the same period that the Manchu script was adopted.
"A lot of the historical files from the Qing Dynasty are written in Manchu and the extinction of the language creates severe difficulties in studying the last feudal empire and the modern history of China," said Li Xianshu, Researcher, Shenyang Mukden Palace.
Today, plans to save the language are spreading as ethnic consciousness grows among the 10-million people who make up this minority. There's a debate over whether there is any point in learning it, but one thing is certain: when languages are lost, the knowledge and cultural identity which went with them get lost too.
