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This picture taken on May 4, 2016 shows Meng Xianren, 84, sitting inside the house of his friend Ji Jinlu (R) 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 Meng Xianren, 84, sitting inside the house of his friend Ji Jinlu (R) 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)
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