УДК 008

Images and concepts of China in the oeuvre of Russian emigrant poets in China in the 1920s and 1930s

Бай Цзе – магистр Национального исследовательского университета «Высшая школа экономики».

Abstract: Russian immigrant literature in China is part of the Russian national cultural wealth, and remains valuable piece of the Russian national spiritual heritage, as well as special creation of human culture.

Many talented Russian writers and poets, composing immigrant literature in China, have achieved success in creativity. They lived in China for many years and had deep understanding and perception of Chinese culture, the beauty of nature and social problems. Many elements of Chinese culture are expressed in the works of Russian emigrant writers and poets.

Аннотация: Русская эмигрантская литература в Китае является составной русского национального культурного богатства, что остается ценной частью русского национального духовного наследия, а также особенным творением человеческой культуры.

Многие талантливые русские писателя и поэты, создавая эмигрантскую литературу в Китае, достигли успеха в творчестве. Они много лет жили в Китае и обладали глубоким пониманием и восприятием китайской культуры, природной красоты и социальных проблем. Многие элементы китайской культуры отображены в произведениях русских писателей и поэтов, находившихся в эмиграции.

Keywords: sino-russian immigrant poetry, russian emigrant poets, communication and dialogue between the two cultures.

Ключевые слова:  русская эмигрантская литература, русская поэзия Китая, три волны китайско-русской иммиграции, русское литературное творчества в Китае, культурный обмен и диалог между двумя культурами.

For a variety of circumstances, the Russian emigrant writers and poets were forced to leave Russia, their familiar environment. They have lost their previous business and personal connections, contacts with publishers and editors, readership, financial base, and all they had to be rebuilt. Once in China, in Harbin, Shanghai, Beijing and other cities, they found themselves unwittingly in a completely unfamiliar to them country, with its very ancient and remarkable culture. If at the beginning they still had certain illusions about the timing of their staying in the new location, then it became clear over time that the loss of the homeland is here to stay. They began to describe unusual for them Chinese landscapes, customs and events from different perspectives and with different feelings, which Chinese writers themselves often do not pay attention or to which they have become accustomed.

Although described by the Chinese and Russian literature events are the same, the products of Russian and Chinese writers’ creative thinking sometimes get quite a different shape. We could say that there was certain personal competition between them, they were potentially compared and complemented each other.

First, widely reflected in the pages of the Russian writers’ works is the basic understanding of Chinese natural landscapes seen as if through the eyes of "strangers" that makes their description unusual, "estrangement" for the Chinese. For example, the ecstatic image of the exotic for any Russian lotus, common for Chinese writers plant in north-eastern China taiga, is distinguished by the variety of plants and animals from the familiar to Russian eyes forest, arrays of the Hinggan Mountains with the unusual for Russian eyes outline, the Songhua River, north nationality Moche, province of Hangzhou, Harbin, Syantanchen, Qiqihar, Beijing, Dairen, Fudzyadyan, sea, meadows, arable Chinese, millet and sorghum fields, rice paddies, lacquer boxes, the waves on the lake, unusual to the romantic-sounding place names: Zhonghai, Biyunsy, Shanghaiguan, Husintin, Pereleshin glorifies the temple of the Azure Clouds in Russian rhythms.

In his own image we see a shady Beijing street in front of us, where elms overhead have grown together in a solid canopy，"Ночь, весна. / От земли тепло. / Эта улица — «чжи жу фа»: / выпевается набело , / поэтическая строфа." For Maria Korostovets, Beijing is the strangest city in the world, " …задумчивые ивы, / В зеркале озер, / Наблюдают сиротливо, / Лотосов ковер." The Manchurian steppe, where Irina Lesnaya lived for many years, entered the Russian poetry and was separated from the world, "Над розовым снегом, в закатной тени, / Низать вдохновенные строки… / Ах, эта влюбленность в алмазные дни, / Из детства берет истоки." [1] From these poetries we can see that the authors express their love and gratitude to China, the adopted country, by describing its nature.

Secondly, the Russian writers attracted to the Chinese traditional culture itself do not surprise Chinese readers and are familiar to them. For example, these are figures on the Chinese fan, Mi-Blue (Buddha statue), Tien-bin (large pancake made of corn flour), miniature on enamel, the image of the Phoenix, Dragon, multi-armed Buddha statue, magic, medicinal power of ginseng, fortunetellers, such incomprehensible and attractive with their harmonies names as Leyfu, Li Taibo, Jan Guay-fairies, Ci-C, Kuan Yin, Buddha, Manchu-iambic verse size, "an imitation of the Chinese", the myth of the "return" - Chinese funeral tradition, verbal expression with the point of saying - "sheet returns incident I root for", Karma - the law of retribution beyond the grave, adopted in Buddhism, originality beliefs Taoism, Confucianism, the Chinese lunar year. [1]

For example, T. Andreeva reproduces an old landscape scroll, which she admired in the Mi-Sin temple，"Пейзаж китайский примитивно прост. / Тут верная жена нашла блаженство. / Чешуйчатый дракон свивает в кольца хвост / И тайных знаков страшно совершенство. / В одеждах длинных старец и монах.[2] As far as we know, Lev Grosse, the son of a former Russian consul, a Neopushkin poet, who passed by the Silver Age poetry with indifference, is the first Russian poet to publish his collections in Shanghai. In 1926 four of his books were published one after another: “The Fall”, “The Kremlin” poem, “The Song of Life” and “The Vision”. Exuberant Grosse continued to publish his books in Shanghai in the late 1920s. The first Shanghai collection published in the thirties (except for the same Grosse) is “The Way of the Exile” by Olga Skopichenko. In 1934 she published a separate edition of the poem by A. Nesmelov “Across the Ocean”. In the same year “Storukaya” was released, the love lyrics by Nikolay Svetlov painted with oriental flavor, says, "Точно новый будда Сакьямуни, / Я пленен надмирной красотой. / Пусть зима, пусть холод… Я — в июне! / Я уже за радостной чертой." "И в зеркале вод отражались священные древние храмы. / Но вдруг отраженья скривились, в ребристые сморщились складки, / как будто под пламенным солнцем нахмурились древние ламы, / да так и остались в морщинах… И несся мучительно сладкий." («Ханьчжоу») [3] Chinese traditional culture has greater impact on Russian immigrant poets, we can always see such words as Buddhism, dragons in their poems.

Thirdly, these are the themes, which reflect the everyday life of ordinary Chinese. For example, these are descriptions of smokers, coffee, fruit little shops, a Chinese album, hunghutz, lomozy, Chinese taverns, the girls from Suzhou, north China farmer, rickshaws and so on.

For example, Harbin by Georgy Granina is morning Sungari, where "something joyfully-stupid / sings Chinese in the distance." And it is such a transparent, thoughtful, easy rest, that: "So, without thinking about the future, / I would have spent hundreds of years." Or an impressionistic Harbin sketch by Alexey Achair,"Мы будем пить пиво в китайской лавчонке, / где фрукты и гвозди лежат меж сластей. / Смотри, как красиво у острова джонки, / слепились, как грозди, / в ажуре сетей!.. / Рыбацкая воля, / купцовая леность." "А в городе, по тротуарным латам, / Мелькают кляч избитые бока, / И рикши потные, в подоткнутых халатах, / Глядят в заплаканные облака." («Волнистой линией тянулся горизонт…») " Их волей властных королей, Направили сюда. / И от республиканских стран , / Идут ряды солдат. / А ветер — дробно в барабан — Тра-та, тра-та, я — рад! / На белокрылом полотне aлеет кровь и круг. / О Азия, горишь в огне, / Мой желтый бедный друг!" (Барабанная дробь)[4] These poems depict the life of the Chinese and reflect the poet’s concern about the future destiny of China! They explored the existential, moral and ethical issues that reflect the spirit of the time, the real life and the suffering of ordinary people. Creating vivid images, solving the problem of freedom and slavery, misery and happiness, they stated the specific history of their new homeland .

Considering the specificity of works of Russian emigrant writers and poets, we should note the feature of their art to connect the Russian culture with the Chinese.

China was not only the host country for them, it gave them the freedom to work, cultivated love for China as their second, even if become such by force, country in them, had great influence on them and enriched their creativity by its culture, its customs, its morals, its natural and social environment. Many emigrants called China their second home or "gentle stepmother." Emigrant literature is unique by that most of its works have reached a remarkable synthesis of the merger of the Russian culture with the Chinese one, both by the subject and idea of the creative style execution. This feature already differs the Russian immigrant literature from the one, which began to take shape in Russia, the homeland they had left.

Список литературы

1. Чжао Цзяньчэн. Творческое воплощение темы русско-китайских эмигрантов в Китае. Молодые писатели, выпуск 27, 2015, 45 стр.
2. Мелихов Г．В. Русская эмигрантская литература в Китае. (1917-1924 гг) [M] 1997, 79 стр.
3. Жун Цзе. Литература русской диаспоры // Обучение русскому языку в Китае. 2004. № 1. 36 стр.
4. Ван Яминь, Исследование литературы русской диаспоры в Китае 20го века, Ланьчжоуский университет, 2007, 26 стр.