Perception of Contemporary Chinese Literature in Russia

This article attempts to comprehend the perception of contemporary Chinese literature in Russia. One of the main research areas of Russian Sinology focused on the study of Chinese literature is Chinese classical literature and modern literature. However, at the turn of the XX-XXI centuries, the interest for contemporary Chinese literature becomes more and more obvious. In recent years, the translation of contemporary Chinese literary works has been continuously developing. The most typical characteristic of contemporary Chinese literature in the interpretation of Russian sinologists is pluralism, which is understood as the simultaneous existence of various literary trends, ideologies, genres, etc. The author analyzes the main trends of reception in the research of Russian scientists and comes to the conclusion that the most interesting for sinologists is the problem of attention to “People” in contemporary Chinese literature, the problem of tradition and modernity, the works of Chinese women writers.

A Study of Du Fu’s Poetry in the West in Modern Times

Chinese classical literature has attracted much attention in the Western world. As an important part of Chinese classical literature, Du Fu’s poetry, also as an important carrier, plays a great role in the international communication of cultural confidence. In recent years, some domestic research institutions and scholars have also written literature reviews on the research progress of Du Fu, but few works of literature comprehensively review related western research results. With the combination of big data and visualization tools, this study uses the title keyword “Du Fu Poetry” to search the English literature of Google scholar. VOSviewer is used to make visual analysis and draw a knowledge map from the aspects of literature quantity, authors, research institutions, co-citation, keyword clustering, etc., to analyze the research situation and hotspots of the Western study of Du’s poetry. The following conclusions are drawn: 1) In recent decades, western translation of Du Fu’s poetry have emerged constantly, attracting more and more famous international publishing houses to cooperate; 2) The study of Du’s poetry abroad mainly focuses on the English translation of Du’s poetry as well as the interpretation and evaluation of poets' thoughts; 3) The study of Du’s poetry abroad ignores the dynamic study of Du's poetry development, and there are some obvious cultural errors or omissions in translation. In a word, this study objectively reflects the development, theme and hotspots of modern western Du Fu poetry research, which has certain significance for fully understanding the general situation of Du Fu research field in Western countries and help to deepen Du Fu’s research.

Princess Wencheng in historical writing: The difficulty in narrating ethnic history in multi-ethnic China

For a multi-ethnic political entity, whether it is an empire or a nation-state, the key to survival is an inclusive order under which multiple ethnic groups with different heritages coexist peacefully. Historical writing on ethnic groups and interactions among them is an important part of this order. To demonstrate this point, this paper offers an examination of three different historical narratives of Princess Wencheng, the heroine of a “peace-making marriage” of the Tang Empire (AD 618–907), who married Songtsen Gampo, the king of Tubo (the ancient name of Tibet). In the first narrative, which is from Chinese classical literature, Princess Wencheng was treated as an insignificant figure and the text paid much more attention to the ceremony of the “peace-making marriage” than to the princess’s individual traits. In the second narrative, which is from Tibetan ancient literature, the princess was portrayed as the incarnation of “Green Tara”, a tantric deity in Tibetan Buddhism, and supposedly possessed goddess qualities and magical powers. This striking difference reflects the different views about the world and its ideal order of the two ancient civilizations. The third narrative, which was shaped by the nationalist discourse during the first part of the 20th century, depicted a new image of Princess Wencheng, gradually transforming her into a “transmitter of technology.” This paper offers a detailed analysis of this evolution and, furthermore, a critical comment on the historical writing done under the guidance of the so-called “progressive view of history”. Our conclusion provides a theoretical discussion of the structural dilemma for modern China as a multi-ethnic nation-state.