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Вестник СПбГУ. Востоковедение и африканистика. 2019. Т. 11. Вып. 1
The Evolution of Russia's Image in China
in the early 20th century:
Key Factors and Research Methodology*
N. A. Samoylov
St. Petersburg State University,
7-9, Universitetskaya nab., St. Petersburg, 199034, Russian Federation
For citation: Samoylov N. A.The Evolution of Russia's Image in China in the early 20th century: Key Factors and Research Methodology. Vestnik of Saint Petersburg University. Asian and African Studies, 2019, vol. 11, issue 1, pp. 28-39. https://doi.org/10.21638/spbu13.2019.102
The paper features a study of one of the key stages in the process of evolution of Russia's image in China, namely, the beginning of the 20th century. The interformational and interciviliza-tional nature of Chinese society in that period predetermined the necessity for social and political institutions to balance between the monarchy and the republic, while in the public consciousness it caused a desire to begin an active search for new paths of development associated with borrowing some patterns from cultural traditions and social practices of other societies. The author believes that it was precisely those circumstances that largely determined the formation of an ambivalent image of Russia at that time. In the beginning of the 20th century, Russia's image in China was simultaneously that of an "aggressive" northern neighbour and that of a country with a rich spiritual heritage worth learning and getting experience from. The article discusses importance of translations of Russian literature for the formation of Russia's image in China in the early 20th century and a role of Chinese revolutionaries in construction of the image of the Russian Revolution. The article also considers some methodological approaches to the study of images and stereotypes. Nowadays studying national and ethnic images and stereotypes in the current context becomes extremely important, having considerable scholarly and practical significance.
Keywords: China, image of Russia, imagology, Zhongguo Tongmenghui (Chinese United League), Qing Dynasty.
Study of Images: Methodological Approaches
While conducting full-scale studies of states and nations' interrelation at the present time, not only economic, political and cultural factors must be taken into account. It is also necessary to consider images of any nations that are related to social ideas and overall mentality of other ethnic groups. An ever-present image of "the Other" not only influences the relations between different peoples in the obvious manner, but is also reciprocated in development of political relationships between states [1]. Nowadays, this condition is taken into consideration in international activities of many countries and their foreign
* The study was funded by the Russian Foundation for Basic Research according to the research project № 17-21-49001 ("Chinese perceptions of Russia and the West during the 20th century: changes, continuities and contingencies").
© Санкт-Петербургский государственный университет, 2019
policy propaganda. This, as it were, determines the scope of the so called "soft power policy". That is why the way countries and their representatives create an impression of these countries' image on the global stage is one of the most important features of foreign affairs. In addition, according to recently conducted research, there are images and stereotypes of mutual perception between different nations that exist throughout the course of known history. Likewise, pre-existing forms of such images have been shown to influence their subsequent development.
Accordingly, studying national and ethnic images and stereotypes in the current context becomes extremely important relative to scholarly and practical significance. Thus, it is required not only to trace the evolution of images of various nations, by means of defining the tendency of their space-time development, but also to find causes for appearance and persistence of certain images representing other countries as being «alien» and thus opposed to «native» within a certain national mentality. Consequently, certain amount of historical research, methods and data of other disciplines (sociology, ethnology, social psychology, literary studies and others) are crucial and practically important. It is impossible to understand other people's images and follow their developing tendency outside an interdisciplinary approach.
It can be said that generation of images and stereotypes is generally an integral part of general communication process between societies and cultures. Currently, analysing its characteristics is widely practiced through implementing various scientific methods. That is why it is possible to state that a new cross-disciplinary scientific field, imagology, has entered into scholarly field.
From the researchers' point of view, nowadays, imagology is considered to be an "overarching academic discipline in humanities that examines the process whereby any images (country, nation, culture and so on) are formed, perceived and transformed" [2, p. 122]. The main point in conducting imagology research is the way different ethnic groups, countries and cultures figuratively perceive something "uncommon". The specified imagology subject matters are: 1) stable images objectified in literature (literary studies); 2) national images and ethnic stereotypes, and the way they influence society (in ethnology); 3) stereotypes of any language (linguistic imagology); 4) mutual opinions of participants in a cultural dialogue regarding each other (in culture studies); images of social function (in sociology) [2, p. 122-123].
More recently, philology and cultural anthropology have been added to the variety of human sciences, methods and approaches used in this multidisciplinary endeavour. In my opinion, it is impossible to understand the dynamics, mechanisms and certain ways of how a definite image of a country or a nation forms, or a transformation of that image into a stable stereotype, without applying the data of sciences delineated above.
Researchers that study a range of problems within the framework of psychological paradigms consider the concept of real and imagined images of any nation or ethnic group to be the subject matter of ethnic self-consciousness. Talking about ethnic stereotypes, one can safely assume they are formed on the basis of ethnic imagery systems; they are generalized, stable, and highly charged; they are composed through historical aspects of inter-ethnic relations; they regulate their carriers' perception and way of conduct.
A great influence of ethnic stereotypes on inter-ethnic relations is described in many a work of modern social psychologists and ethno-psychologists [3], who mention that ethnic stereotypes reflect cultural and historical peculiarities of parties to ethnic rela-
tions: ethnic stereotypes and ethnic autostereotypes, while depicting judgment-based and standard components of an ethnos (as a sociocultural system), serve as a force driving its self-identification in ethnic communities and cultures continuum. Emotive and estimative character of ethnic stereotypes is one of the crucial points. There are three parameters of an ethnic stereotype's emotive and estimative component: ambivalence, expressiveness and directivity. These are important characteristics of an ethnic stereotype, because they depict its "imagery". Ethno-psychologists consider stability and rigidity to be another important quality of ethnic stereotypes. However, a degree of relativity to this stability is also recognized.
Ethno-psychologists, while conducing applied research, pay much attention to formation of ethnic stereotypes and their functioning on the basis of cultural, common and other specific features of an ethnic community determined through the course of history. In this respect, it is noticed that ethnic stereotypes "are the components of national mental make-up and the basis of national self-image formation".
At this point, meaningful results in the sphere of development of the concept of ethnic stereotypes have been achieved. Ethnologists declare that ethnic stereotypes have an absolute effect on peoples' behaviour and that they can form ethnic antipathies or good feelings, pushing nations apart or pulling them together. They can also predetermine human behaviour in any situation.
A. S. Mylnikov, while developing ethnological component of research in imagology and stressing its interdisciplinary nature came up with the term "ethnic imagology". Its problematic points are: 1) Creation of ethnic/ethnocultural world-view during the course of different historical periods which tends to be different from one nation to another; 2) Study of formation of ethnic/ethnocultural stereotypes and activities concerning different nations and their representatives; 3) Development of a set of issues connected with researching concepts of national character, ethnic mind-set and phenomena that generate relevant ethnocultural stereotypes. Consequently, the analysis of this set of issues must be carried out taking into account group-wide sociocultural imagery that usually differs from general ethnical imagery; 4) Examination of the historical memory phenomenon that through an interrelation of ethnic, spatial and diachronic factors secures a continuity of ethnic/ethnocultural tradition from the past into the present and the future [4, p.16]. Thus, according to the concept of A. S. Mylnikov, the main branches of ethnic imagology are: world view, ethnocultural stereotypes, ethnic mind-set, historical memory — which altogether offer opportunities for understanding ethnopsychological mechanisms on systemic levels. "Perception is the component of ethnic imagology that depicts public feelings and conscience. It is as unbiased as the things it depicts" [4, p. 17].
Researches that work in the sphere of cultural paradigms have their own point of view on formation and functioning of images and stereotypes. They suppose that "the ability to understand "uncommon" and "foreign" phenomena and their communication processes is one of the most important problems in history of culture" [5, p. 5]. Cultural anthropologists state that the intention to understand "foreign" culture lets a person exceed the bounds of his own world and plunge into other cultural spheres. It is very important for the development of his own culture. Nowadays, being influenced by globalization, this statement is becoming more and more popular.
On the basis of methodology approaches and the specified data of research fields described above, a researcher, while preparing for the analysis of formation and evolution
of mutual imagery of Russia and China, first of all, must define the connection between the following terms: "perception", "stereotype", "prejudice", and "image" in order to follow their origination and development within the framework of social ideas and collective consciousness of any nation.
We consider "perception" to be an impression about another nation or country and primary apprehension of this impression in an individual's mind. More frequently, "perceptions" occur on the basis of available information — fragmentary or systematic (personal impressions and data obtained from other people, literature or under the weight of mass communication media). It must be taken into account that this information can be subjective, unilateral, unreliable or even false. "Perceptions" can be easily changed. Also, they can be stable, positive and negative. The main point is that they are always oriented on individual's mind. A set of perceptions forms a model that is strong enough to influence stereotypes and formation of images.
A "stereotype" (ethnic, national) in its turn is depicted as a component of collective consciousness. It is a stable image which is set in public mind and which consists of unusually standardized collective experiences which one gets during the process of communication (within a family, an educational institution, a community, or a state). "Stereotypes" can be based both on objective knowledge and misunderstandings formed in the society or created under the pressure of propaganda. They can often be transformed into persistent forms lingering in the minds of some groups of people or even nations.
"Perceptions" and "stereotypes" can cause "prejudice" — negative attitude towards any ethnic group, nation or state. Ethnical prejudice often becomes an element of a global public mind-set. They can engender various theoretical constructs. On the basis of these constructs, many geopolitical and foreign-policy concepts are formed in an objective way or perhaps only to conform to a certain political environment. A famous American psychologist Gordon Allport (1897-1967) conducted a research on the sources of prejudice and the role of prejudice in the structure of national character. He tried to use sociological, as well as historical approaches and psychological data while writing his book "The Nature of Prejudice" [6].
The combination of "perceptions", "stereotypes" and, in some cases, "prejudice" forms the "image" of a nation — a specific collective portrait which is projected into its collective consciousness. On the basis of this, we can state that an "image", globally speaking, turns out to be an objective phenomenon which consists of sets of perceptions and stereotypes depicted in different spheres of public life and consciousness.
At this point, some results in analysing the image of Russia in China in the 20th century have been obtained. First of all, one must pay attention to the research of a famous Russian sinologist, academician S. L. Tikhvinsky (1918-2018): "Chinese perceptions of the image of Russia" [7]. The author was the first among Russian sinologists who suggested a detailed history overview and analysis of Russia's image appearing and developing in China, including the 20th century. A Research Candidate Dissertation and a monograph by a young Russian researcher N. V. Ten is dedicated to the up-to-date stage of evolution of this image [8].
We must notice that the term "imagology" (ШШ^) in Chinese scientific literature was used initially by Meng Hua [9] in 2000. After a while, the relevant research on China's image in Russia and Russia's image in China was carried out. At this, we must pay attention to interesting and substantiated monographs of Sun Fang and Chen Jinpeng [10], and
Li Suian [11] which represent a large period of history. Lately a joint research of Russian and Chinese scholars in this area has also been conducted [12].
It needs to be stated that, while learning evolution of Russia's image in China in the 20th century, a set of circumstances relating to previous historic periods should be taken into account. First of all, the most important point to be made here is that the process of mutual perception between the Russians and the Chinese was subsumed within a broader phenomenon of reciprocal interpenetration of two stable sociocultural traditions: one being — Confucianism, the other Russian Orthodoxy. For this reason, the relevant ethnic images are heavily tied to a perception of another type of culture, other forms of social and political organization. Here, the mutual images of Russia and China were formed by the early 20th century [More detailed: 13].
By that moment, a reasonably stable and diversified image of China had already been formed in Russia, whereas visions of Russia in Qing Empire were severely limited and fragmentary, the information about our country being available only to a small group of people.
Role of Russian Literature in the formation of Russia's Image
in China in the early 20th century
The translations of Russian literature into the Chinese language played a great role in forming the images of Russia in China by the early 20th century. Many Chinese intellectuals were absorbed with humanistic ideas of Russian authors (Leo Tolstoy, Fyodor Dos-toyevsky, Ivan Turgenev, Anton Chekhov and others). Thus, a certain image of Russia and the Russians began to form within a particular stratum of the Chinese society, that image being significantly removed from the stereotypical perception of Russia as an aggressive neighbour. The two images coexisted for some time practically without any reciprocal influence. This circumstance occasioned the occurrence of mixed feelings in Chinese people's minds by the early 20th century.
Three fables written by Ivan Krylov ("The Pike"; "Friendship between Dogs"; and "A Fox and A Marmot") that were published in 1900 in translation from English happened to be the first examples of Russian literature rendered into Chinese [14, p. 18-19]. It is important that the content of those fables, being an object of mockery and derision for the Russian people, likewise catered to similar convictions of the Chinese society (in particular, relating to the absolute power of bureaucracy and corruption).
In 1903 Ji Yihui (1878-1908) translated into Chinese the novel by Alexander Pushkin, "The Captain's Daughter", from the Japanese language. Although, that translation bore a different title, the choice of the novel was not accidental: the characters' behaviour in this story (and, first of all, of the main character Pyotr Grinyov) went in line with Confucian visions of obligation, rules of behaviour, intercommunication between elders and juniors, the sovereign and his lieges. Thus, the Chinese literati, while getting acquainted with Alexander Pushkin's novel, promoted an image of the Russians as being honourable people, true to their word and possessing integrity.
In 1907 "Bella" written by Mikhail Lermontov and "Black Monk" by Anton Chekhov were published as separate editions. Also, some works written by Leo Tolstoy, whom the Chinese considered to be a moral preacher, more like a Confucian or a Taoist man of wisdom, were translated as well. Tolstoy himself was fond of Confucius and Lao-zi. As a mat-
ter of fact, there were some letters exchanged between Leo Tolstoy and a Chinese thinker and a popular school organizer Gu Hongming (1857-1928; at the time rendered into Russian parlance as Ku Hongming) [15], in which there was an interchange of ideas obtained from philosophical concepts of the two countries. Over the course of the first decade of the20th century Chinese readers had an opportunity to come across works of literature written by Leonid Andreev, Maxim Gorky, Aleksey Tolstoy and other Russian writers.
The novel written by a talented Chinese writer and translator Zeng Pu (1871-1935) "A Flower in a Sinful Sea" [16], played a great role in introducing the Chinese to Russia's common life. The events described in this novel partially take place in Russia. Also, the names of Leo Tolstoy, Nikolay Chernishevsky, Aleksandr Herzen were mentioned in this novel. In addition, Zeng Pu introduced Chinese readers to Russian revolutionaries. A special article published in China at that period of time was dedicated to the life and times of a Russian revolutionary Sophia Perovskaya [17].
Alongside with those, however, more and more articles were being published containing negative comments on Russia's politics relating to China at the outset of the 20th century. It had a great impact on planting unfavourable images of our country in the minds of the Chinese. Basically, that reaction was connected with certain actions undertaken by Russian imperial government (the previous fact of Russian troops taking part in suppressing Yihetuan (Boxer) rebellion; as well as the battles on the Chinese territory during Russo-Japanese war of 1904-1905, and so on). The Chinese people considered the defeat of Russia in the Russo-Japanese war to be a possibility for an Asian nation to come victorious in a conflict with a European state.
The example of active anti-Russian campaign conducted by Chinese press was the creation of a press organ "Eshi Jingwen" ("Troubling News from Russia") [18]. The editorial board headed by 'Association for Resistance to Russia", whose member was Cai Yuanpei (future Minister of Education in the Republican government and the President of Peking University), aimed at conducting active anti-Russian propaganda. At the same time, the activities carried out by that press pointed at other issues. Step by step, writers contributing to "Eshi Jingwen", instead of criticizing Russia's politics, began propagandizing the experience of the Russian Revolution.
Anti-Qing Movement and the Image of the Russian Revolution
In China the first decade of the 20 th century was the period of development of active social ideas, while there was an apprehension of the situation of internal crisis making adverse impact on China's political climate. During this period, the worldview expounded by representatives of the revolutionary approach was being formed. Chinese thinkers paid much attention both to internal situation and to events happening in other countries.
In the 1860-1880 the representatives of Chinese intellectuals and bureaucracy had only remotely begun thinking about a possibility of using scientific, technical and military achievements gleaned from the outside world. However, several decades later (in the beginning of the 20th century) Chinese thinkers and, particularly, representatives of radical revolutionary approach were already trying to actively evaluate the experience of political development of other countries. Strong national movements and revolutions abroad were the centre of their attention. The closer another country was located to Qing Empire and the stronger its radical movements were, the more attention of Chinese revolution-
ists it received. They tried to enrich their revolutionary tactics by way of analysing other nations' experience. That is why Russia became very attractive for this part of Chinese society. Analysing the experience of the Russian Revolution of 1905-1907 and the events of 1917 was an integral part of understanding their own reality. The image of revolutionary Russia that fights against autocracy remained a very important social idea among the Chinese people for many years.
We must notice at this point that the impact of the Russian Revolution of 19051907 on developing revolutionary ideas in Asian countries was, indeed, very big. The Russian Revolution influenced the process of forming national self-consciousness of Asian peoples, the strengthening of national liberation struggle. Revolutionaries in many Asian countries, including China, focused their attention on Russia, where there was a struggle between revolutionary and autocratic forces. Not having paid much attention to social meaning of this struggle, the leading activists of national liberation movement considered it to be a symbol of opposition to absolute power and despotism, the image of revolutionists' firm resistance force. The year the Revolution in Russia began there was an alliance of Chinese revolutionary forces formed — a political organization "Chinese United League" (Tongmenghui). There were many materials dedicated to the Russian Revolution of 19051907 published in "Min Bao" that gave the evidence of a huge interest in the events in Russia manifested by Chinese revolutionaries.
The Image of Russia in Chinese periodicals in the first decade of the 20th century was diversified. On the one hand, Chinese revolutionists (Sun Yatsen, Song Jiaoren, Zhu Zhixin) and, also, liberals (for example, Liang Qichao [19-23] supported the growing revolutionary movement in Russia; highly appreciated some features of Russian national character (endurance in struggle, loyalty to ideals, a tendency to self-abnegation). On the other hand, they were strictly against the tsarist policy; wrote about the disloyalty of the Russian government that together with other imperialist powers was willing to enslave China owing to the weakness of the Qing dynasty.
There were direct parallels between Russia and China as regards socio-political formation in Chinese revolutionary periodicals and newspapers. They suggested using Russian people's experience. At this point, we must mention that the readership of such periodicals was very limited, although they represented a very active stratum of the Chinese society.
We think that it is high time we considered perception of the Revolution of 19051907 by Chinese political and social public figures in two ways. Firstly, it should be considered as a component of understanding experience of a foreign country. Secondly, it seems to be an integral part of forming a positive image of Russia and thereupon borrowing the political struggle concepts coming from Russia. Subsequently, these events led to laying the groundwork of understanding the ideas of the Russian Revolution of October 1917 and socialist construction experience in the USSR.
This problem can be reviewed on the basis of articles written by outstanding "Chinese United League" members: Song Jiaoren (1882-1913) and Hu Hanmin (1879-1936) which were dedicated to the Russian Revolution of 1905-1907. These articles were published in central press organ — newspaper "Min Bao". There Song Jiaoren under the pen-name of Qiang Zhai published his articles "Independence of Livland" [24] and "Russian Revolution of 1905" [25]. These works, being a retelling of the Russian Revolution as described in some Japanese publications, were reconsidered and passed through the prism of personal
understanding. Hu Hanmin's article "Newspaper of the Russian Revolutionary Party" [26] (under the pen-name of Bin Jian) and "Situation in Russia after Adoption of the Constitution" (under the pen-name of Qu Fei) were published in "Min Bao".
Song Jiaoren and Hu Hanmin in their articles tried to provide a reader with facts related to the events in Russia. Sometimes they tried to explain them on the basis of their own perception. Getting thoroughly acquainted with these articles leads me to a conclusion that their authors, while distributing materials connected with Russia, considered internal political situation in China and made certain conclusions on the basis of their own sociocultural perception. The Russian Revolution was thought to be an example for Chinese revolutionaries to look up to in order to make reorganization of their own country. 1905 was the year of spreading revolutionary ideas among the progressive part of Chinese immigration. That is why the "Chinese United League" members were searching for heroic examples for imitation inspired by "brave heroes" of previous periods. Revolutionary events in Russia had such examples.
Song Jiaoren in his articles raised a direct question about forms of struggle considering it to be a sole means to achieve success. He took into account a great role of mass political public speaking, connecting it with events in Russia and the ideas of an armed uprising to overthrow Manchu sovereignty in China carried out by revolutionaries from his party. At this time, Song Jiaoren paid much attention to serious preparation of armed revolts and strikes, seeking to exceed the efforts taken by Russian revolutionaries. That issue was urgent for revolutionary movement in China.
Hu Hanmin stressed the importance of support on the part of the common people, mentioning that the "Russian revolutionary party" had succeeded only because of having received support from the nation.
According to the articles, both Hu Hanming and Song Jiaoren were trying to engraft the idea of necessity to use Russian revolutionary experience and to learn their tactics of active struggle against autocracy. Till the end of the 20th century, all political and social leaders opposed to the regime of Qing dynasty made emphasis on the technical superiority of European nations, as well as of the USA and Japan. In the beginning of the 20th century outstanding leaders of revolutionary movement began suggesting examples of revolutions: the Great French Revolution and the Russian Revolution of 1905-1907. It was a so-called attempt to find out a "trigger" for social changes.
The important feature of the articles described above is the will of their authors to depict the level of Russia's revolutionary consciousness as comparable to that of China during that period of time. Perhaps, Chinese revolutionaries considered that in order to achieve a raised level of awareness it was required not only to make an emphasis on elevation of their nation and its merits, but also it to provide an example of such elevation in other people's consciousness. The Russian nation became such an example for the Chinese revolutionaries in the beginning of the 20th century. Its positive image was depicted in their articles.
The idea the necessity to learn from other nations' scientific, technical, and military achievements (as mentioned above, it was promoted in China in the 1860-ies), the experience of struggling against monarchy in order to establish just and fair government, the experience of revolutionary struggle (in fact, they wrote about familiarizing with another political culture) were all represented on the pages of "Min Bao".
Definitely, Song Jiaoren, Hu Hanmin and other members of "Chinese United League", who were trying to reconsider the struggle of Russian people against autocracy, could
identify neither the reasons nor the tendencies of the Russian Revolution. First of all, they were interested in ideas of tactics and methods of struggle. But still, the propaganda of the Russian revolutionary experience promoted the involvement of like-minded Chinese activities. It enlarged their willingness to overthrow Qing dynasty. On the other hand, it formed a positive image of Russian people that had stepped on the path of revolutionary struggle. This in turn ensured the fact that that image would continue to influence a certain part of Chinese society which would constantly use the "Russian experience" in the coming years. The spreading of information concerning the Revolution of 1905-1907 (mostly by articles in "Min Bao") and the solidarity with the Russian people's struggle expressed by the Chinese revolutionaries activated the interest and sympathy towards Russia that promoted the desire to use the Russian experience.
The evaluation of events occurring in Russia as well as of its foreign politics was quite conservative in official periodicals. Although very critical publications were sometimes published, the image of Russia (especially during the period of Russian Revolution of 1905-1907 and in the years that followed) was often used as a sample to make reorganization and implement various restrictions.
The most negative image of Russia was formed in Chinese periodicals that were dependent on foreign states. This fact explains a biased attitude toward Russia on the part of England (perpetual nemesis, including the Far East), the USA (antagonism against state and political order of Russia and its foreign politics), Japan (competition in East Asia) and other countries. We should also say that such a negative attitude influenced the traditional and firm stereotype of the "threat from the North" that had ruled minds of the Chinese people through the course of thousands of years.
Foreign states, first of all, the USA, Britain, and Japan used periodicals in China for propaganda of their own imagery, including the creation of their opponents' negative image in the international field. Russia could only oppose the newspaper "Yuan Dong Bao" published in Harbin in Chinese. However, this periodical did not get much support from the side of Russian government and could not seriously affect the process of forming the image of Russia in China [detailed information: 28].
Thus, we can state that in the first decade of the 20th century a rather complicated and contradictory image of Russia was formed in China. Negative images were depicted alongside sympathetic, if not outright enthusiastic publications. All these could not but influence both the process of perception stereotypes of Russia formed in China in the beginning of the 20th century and the specific features of understanding between the Russians and the Chinese after Xinhai Revolution in China, the October Russian Revolution and the Civil War in Russia.
By the beginning of the 20th century the imbalance in the sphere of Sino-Russian so-ciocultural interaction that was peculiar to previous centuries, when the interest to China in Russia was much higher compared to the interest to Russia in China, was gradually reduced. The reasons for such an imbalance can be traced back to the characters of both these societies as well as to some features of Russian and Chinese cultures' in the 18th — 19th centuries.
Up to the 20th century Chinese culture remained traditional and was functioning in the system of coordinates adopted in the Confucian society, where the idea of Chinese civilization self-containment was considered to be of high-priority. At the cusp of the 18th century Russian culture was gradually being opened by the external world. The will to
extend a geocultural space, developing on the sidelines of extending geopolitical space, provided an active borrowing of other cultures' achievements (not only from the West, but to a certain extent also from the East). All those influenced the tendencies of Chinese culture's perception in Russia.
The situation totally changed at the cusp of the 18th — 19th centuries. At this period, the interest in Russia and Russian culture in China was picking up. This was caused by the transformation of Chinese society that had already begun. In the view of Russian sinologists V. B. Menshikov and O. E. Nepomnin, at the cusp of the 18th — 19th centuries there occurred an "interformational system between civilizations (with peculiar features of conglomeration and imbalance, mutual contradictions and struggle" in Chinese transitional society" [29]. Interformational and cross-civilizational tendencies of the Chinese society of that period determined the balance between institutions for social and political studies at the edge of historical periods and intensive search for paths of new development connected with borrowing samples from cultural traditions and social practice of other communities. This was the reason for resorting to Russian literature and political culture of that period. Subsequently, the Russian Revolution of 1917 and the Chinese Revolution of 1949 gave a boost to deepening of such processes.
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Received: October 23, 2018 Accepted: December 6, 2018
Author's information:
Nikolay A. Samoylov — Dr. Sci. in History, Professor; samoylov_nikolay@mail.ru
Эволюция образа России в Китае в начале XX века: ключевые факторы и методология изучения
Н. А. Самойлов
Санкт-Петербургский государственный университет,
Российская Федерация, 199034, Санкт-Петербург, Университетская наб., 7-9
Для цитирования: Samoylov N. A. The Evolution of Russia's Image in China in the early 20th century: Key Factors and Research Methodology // Вестник Санкт-Петербургского университета. Востоковедение и африканистика. 2019. Т. 11. Вып. 1. С. 28-39. https://doi.org/10.21638/spbu13.2019.102 (In English)
Статья посвящена изучению одного из ключевых этапов эволюции образа России в Китае — периоду начала XX в. Межформационный и межцивилизационный характер китайского общества в указанный период предопределил балансирование социально-политических институтов между монархией и республикой, а в общественном сознании вызвал стремление к началу активных поисков новых путей развития, связанных с заимствованием образцов из культурных традиций и социальной практики других стран. Автор статьи считает, что именно эти обстоятельства в значительной степени повлияли на формирование в тот период в цинском Китае амбивалентного образа зарубежных стран, в том числе и России: в начале XX в. в Цинской империи в равной мере присутствовали, как образ «агрессивного» северного соседа, так и образ страны, обладавшей богатым духовным наследием, у которой стоило учиться и перенимать опыт. К началу ХХ в. постепенно уменьшается дисбаланс в сфере российско-китайского социокультурного взаимодействия, характерный для предшествующих столетий, когда интерес к Китаю в России был существенно выше интереса к России в Китае. В статье показано значение переводов русской художественной литературы в процессе распространения знаний о России, что повлияло на формирование позитивного образа России в Китае в начале XX в. В соответствующем разделе продемонстрирована важная роль статей китайских революционеров в создании романтического образа русской революции 1905-1907 гг. В статье также рассмотрены некоторые методологические подходы к изучению образов и стереотипов. В настоящее время изучение национальных и этнических образов и стереотипов становится чрезвычайно важным и имеет как научное, так и практическое значение.
Ключевые слова: Китай, образ России, имагология, Чжунго Тунмэнхуэй (Китайская Союзная лига), династия Цин.
Контактная информация:
Самойлов Николай Анатольевич — д-р ист. наук, проф.; samoylov_nikolay@mail.ru
