Why do immigrants keep their mother tongue?

Because of being sinicized, Manchu people quickly learned to speak Chinese, but they forgot Manchu a little. Until the late Qing Dynasty, many officials were basically not good at Manchu. It is a shame for the Han nationality that the Qing army entered the customs. Many Han Chinese refused to identify with the Qing regime. The rulers of the Qing dynasty knew better that if they were not recognized by the Han people as soon as possible, they would probably be thrown out again. Therefore, the rulers of the Qing Dynasty paid attention to the integration of Manchu and Chinese cultures, but in this process, Manchu culture was gradually abandoned and forgotten.

1. Only by integrating into China culture can the political power be stable. As mentioned above, when Huang Taiji planned to occupy the Central Plains, he knew that if he suppressed the Han people and their culture blindly, the Han people would not recognize the Qing Dynasty and the civil uprising would not stop. So Huang taiji began to implement the policy of cultural integration between Manchu and Han, and also accepted the defection of Han ministers. And this is also the policy that the emperor has always adhered to since Shunzhi. In order to manage the Han people, emperors and ministers need to learn Chinese and China culture in order to communicate with Han ministers.

The speed of meeting China culture surprised even the emperor. However, what Huang Taiji didn't expect was that the Manchu people were sinicized very quickly. During the Kangxi period, officials had learned Chinese and were able to have skilled dialogues and exchanges. During the Yongzheng period, the court guards were already able to joke with each other in the familiar Beijing dialect; During the Qianlong period, Manchu people basically used Chinese to communicate in public places. Manchu people are very familiar with China culture, but they are in a backward state. How good Chinese is, how bad Manchu is.

3. Pay attention to Manchu learning, but it still can't protect Manchu. Naturally, the rulers of Qing Dynasty could not let Manchu be forgotten, so they adopted many policies to protect Manchu. For example, gather Manchu people in one area and try to isolate them from Han people and communicate with each other in Manchu. However, this policy has not achieved results, because Manchu people not only communicate with Manchu people, but also use Chinese in other places, just like families who immigrate to foreign countries. As long as they communicate in the local language at home for a generation or a few years, they will be assimilated by the local culture.

This policy was useless, so Emperor Qianlong thought of using Manchu to assess officials, and asked Manchu descendants to learn Manchu. Once Manchu has become the focus of assessment, although it has become popular, most people actually respond with a coping attitude. Because Manchu is actually of little use and can be solved in Chinese, why do you have to learn Manchu by heart? So later, Chinese was gradually abandoned by Manchu.

Generally speaking, Manchu was gradually forgotten because Manchu gradually merged into China culture, stopped using Manchu and paid no attention to Manchu learning.