A language to love (fwd link)

[Phillip E Cash Cash]

A language to love

Updated: 2012-08-14 13:50
By Li Yingqing and Liu Wenwen in Lijiang, Yunnan ( China Daily)

"I speak the language I love, for that is me myself, I teach the
language I love to children, to let them know who they are."

This quote from a UN report on endangered languages reflects the
thoughts of Guo Dalie and Huang Linna.

Huang and her husband Guo, a Naxi Dongba culture scholar, have set up
a class in 1999 at Huangshan Primary School to pass on Dongba culture,
which they run every Thursday afternoon.

They teach children the Naxi language and culture.

Naxi people predominantly live in Lijiang, an ancient city on the
UNESCO World Heritage List and about 600 km northwest of Kunming in
Yunnan province.

The Naxi's culture derived from the Dongba religion about 1,000 years
ago and the 1,300 Dongba written characters are the only existing
primitive pictographs in the world.

Under the impact of modernization and globalization, however, just 20
percent of Naxi people can speak their own language and the proportion
is declining.

Access full article below:
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/life/2012-08/14/content_15674449.htm?bsh_bid=119421255

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