Measures Taken in China to Save Jeopardizing LanguageManchu, ever been designated by China's last feudal dynasty, the Qing Dynasty as "national language" and popular in the whole country then, is today on the verge of extinction after the Qing Dynasty came to an end 89 years ago. No more than 100 people can speak it now, and so some related departments are taking measures to save the dying-out language.A recent survey shows that among the 10 million Manchu population, only the people aged at 70 or 80 can speak their own language, who are mainly distributed in the remote villages of northeast China, while their offspring can not do it any more. As reported the major measures adopted for saving the language are: strengthen the training of persons in speaking the Manchu language; try in a deeper way to find and save the existing Manchu language, materials and special folklore; hold Manchu speaking classes to make the teenagers receive an early education of the language and turn out the tape or video materials of the Manchu currently spoken by the people. China No.1 Museum of Historical Archives and Central University for Nationalities will jointly hold classes for the study of "Manchu historical documents" as a new undergraduate specialty and Heilongjiang University will also open Manchu courses in its Chinese and history faculties. Great efforts will also be made by the Chinese government for popularizing the "bilingual education" in the Manchu autonomous counties and villages, giving the language a legal status in China. |
| People's Daily Online --- http://www.peopledaily.com.cn/english/ |