Tatiana Bokova, Intern of the Russian National Committee on BRICS Research – special for InfoBRICS
After the collapse of the USSR, Russian-Chinese relations remained friendly and continued to develop positively on the principles of strategic interaction and good neighborliness. The governments of both countries have implemented several measures that have contributed to strengthening mutual understanding and giving new impetus to bilateral relations in various spheres. Today, China and Russia are each other’s main and crucial partners in strategic coordination, and their relationship is a priority in both countries’ common foreign policy and politics.
The current stage of intercultural interaction between Russia and China is in the nature of dialogue, which is impossible without mutually beneficial cooperation. Both countries at this stage are actively revitalizing not only their national traditions but also the cultural traditions of their regions. At the same time, the People’s Republic of China also pays much attention to cultural cooperation with the Russian Federation. The concept of culture includes such spheres as beliefs, knowledge, cultural values, and historical experience.
The Chinese government promotes its culture mainly through the promotion of traditional and modern Chinese culture; dissemination of the Chinese language abroad and international scientific and educational cooperation. Moreover, the development of humanitarian cooperation is facilitated by jointly established structures and organizations. For example, the Russian-Chinese Committee for Friendship, Peace and Development; the Russian-Chinese Foundation for the Development of Culture and Education; the Russian-Chinese Friendship Society, the Russian-Chinese Commission for Humanitarian Cooperation headed by Tatyana Golikova and Sun Chunlan, as well as the Russian Cultural Centre in Beijing and the Chinese Cultural Centre in Moscow.
Among other instruments of Chinese cultural diplomacy are traditional Chinese festivals, “Cross years, months, weeks or days” of national culture with foreign countries, activities of Chinese cultural centers abroad, tours of Chinese theatre troupes, international cooperation between libraries, museums, publishing houses, activities of traditional Chinese academies. Cross-year exchanges before the 2020 pandemic occurred with notable regularity. For example, 2006 - 2007 were the Year of Russia in China and the Year of China in Russia, 2009 was the Year of the Russian Language in China, 2010 was the Year of the Chinese Language in Russia, then national Years of Tourism, Years of Friendly Youth Exchange, Years of Media Cooperation between Russia and China were announced, and finally, 2018 - 2019 are dedicated to the Years of Interregional Cooperation.
The three-day VIII St. Petersburg International Cultural Forum was held in 2019. For several days, musicians, dancers and theatrical performers from all over the world have been performing here every day. Over 35,000 guests from 96 countries and regions carried out cultural exchanges and dialogues among civilizations around the theme of “Cultural codes in a globalized world”. As the guest of honor of this forum, China has held a series of artistic activities, making this forum full of “Chinese style”. In the forum's framework, the host country specially organized two roundtables on Sino-Russian cultural exchanges. The theme of one session was “Language Space in the ‘Belt and Road’, Opportunities and Challenges for Colleges and Universities” and the theme of the other session was “Joint Projects in Sino-Russian Cinema”.
In 2019, the “Festival of Chinese Culture” was opened in Russia. The cultural programme included a tasting of Chinese food, a performance by a creative group, a master class in Chinese art, a Chinese lantern festival and sports competitions. Moreover, 1 million people attended the festival.
In recent years, the Chinese government has adopted a number of programmes (“Cultural China. Chinese talents and arts”, “Chinese traditional medicine”, “Journey to China in search of one’s roots”), which are aimed at increasing the influence of Chinese culture abroad and showing the world a new image of China. It provides state support to Chinese border areas to create the image of a prosperous and developing China. For example, the Chinese city of Heihe, on the Amur River, opposite the Russian city of Blagoveshchensk, receives state subsidies to improve the urban environment, including neon illumination of architectural sites facing the Russian coast.
A significant role is given to popularizing the Chinese language. Chinese is one of the official languages of the UN, the national language in the PRC, Taiwan and Singapore, as well as the native language one for the many millions of Chinese living in all parts of the world. Since 2005, China has been implementing the policy of “going abroad” announced by PRC President Jiang Zemin. According to the State Office for Overseas Chinese Language Promotion, there are now over 40 million Chinese language learners around the world.
A network of Confucius Institutes promotes mainly the Chinese language, non-profit organisations established based on foreign universities or in cooperation with foreign cultural centres and operating as a joint venture. In Russia there are 19 Confucius Institutes and 4 Confucius Schools in Moscow, St. Petersburg, Volgograd, Novosibirsk Irkutsk, Vladivostok, Kazan, Ulan-Ude, Tomsk, Ryazan, Yaroslavl, Blagoveshensk and other cities.
Along with strengthening the teaching of culture in the classroom, according to the interests and hobbies of Russian students, a series of colorful extracurricular activities, such as teaching calligraphy, Chinese New Year celebrations, teaching tea art, Chinese corner, can help students enhance their knowledge, broaden their outlook and experience the deep Chinese culture. For example, the large-scale Chinese New Year celebrations held at the Confucius Institute have been major fodder for Russian students to learn about Chinese culture.
Currently, there is an intense development of cultural contacts between Russia and China, including in the field of higher education. Many Russian universities cooperate with their Chinese colleagues in a variety of educational fields. Every year, many Russian universities introduce educational programmes that allow them to study the Chinese language and culture, economics and politics. As of 2019, between 60,000 and 80,000 people in Russia were studying Chinese because there is a tremendous interest in culture, history and business interaction with China.
China also promotes Chinese culture through various media channels. It is worth highlighting the China Central Television (CCTV) and the Chinese government’s Xinhua News Agency. CCTV has been operating since 1958 and now has over 40 television channels. The channel, which broadcasts in English, Korean, Russian, French, Spanish and Arabic, has a global audience of 85 million people. Xinhua News Agency is officially under the Ministry of State Security of the People’s Republic of China. It has covered news around the world in Chinese, English, French, Russian, Spanish, Arabic and Japanese since 1931.
At present, the internationalization of education is becoming the object of a targeted policy by the state to address national, political, social, and economic problems. Scholarly contacts are increasing, and annual bulletins and journals are being published, and research is being carried out in scientific centers (for example, Institute of China and Modern Asia, Russian Academy of Sciences, Center for Strategic Studies of China, etc.). The intensification of intergovernmental relations between Russia and China has caused interest in problems of cultural and educational cooperation as well. Russia and China have rich experience and a long tradition of educational exchanges.
Understanding dissemination of Chinese culture elements by popularizing traditions of Chinese philosophy schools incorporated in particular in ancient art of Qigong - system of gymnastic and meditative breathing exercises that became popular in Russia in the last two decades - is very relevant today. This system of gymnastic, meditative and breathing exercises has become popular in Russia in the last two decades. There are several schools and directions of qigong, representing an integral system of knowledge and methods allowing to make a breakthrough into the sphere of special abilities, to study oneself, to understand the structure of the world, to realize one’s own place and tasks in it.
"With China's rapidly developing economy, Russia is increasingly interested in Chinese culture, and the achievements of Russian-Chinese cultural exchanges are constantly expanding. Cultural exchanges and education between Russia and China should have a deeper understanding of each other's cultural traditions.”
In cultural cooperation, culture is used as an object and a means of achieving the fundamental goals of a state’s foreign policy, creating a favourable image of the country, and promoting the culture and the languages of its nations. Consequently, for both China and Russia, the cultural aspect is an integral part of bilateral relations and is seen as a promising component for realising national interests.
