see more

This picture taken on May 4, 2016 shows school teacher Shi Junguang during a class at the Sanjiazi Manchu school in Sanjiazi village, Heilongjiang province. It was the language of China's ruing Dynasty just a century ago, but now the country's only Manchu speakers are a handful of pensioners in a remote village. Locals are struggling to pass it on amid a extinction which experts forecast could lead the loss of half the word's languages by the end of the century. / AFP / NICOLAS ASFOURI / TO GO WITH AFP STORY: China-language-culture-minorities, FEATURE by Tom Hancock (Photo credit should read NICOLAS ASFOURI/AFP/Getty Images)

This picture taken on May 4, 2016 shows school teacher Shi Junguang during a class at the Sanjiazi Manchu school in Sanjiazi village, Heilongjiang province. It was the language of China's ruing Dynasty just a century ago, but now the country's only Manchu speakers are a handful of pensioners in a remote village. Locals are struggling to pass it on amid a extinction which experts forecast could lead the loss of half the word's languages by the end of the century. / AFP / NICOLAS ASFOURI / TO GO WITH AFP STORY: China-language-culture-minorities, FEATURE by Tom Hancock (Photo credit should read NICOLAS ASFOURI/AFP/Getty Images)
Getty Images

AFP NICOLAS ASFOURI