When president Xi Jinping was invited to attend the opening ceremony of the Sochi Winter Olympic Games on the 7th of February, it was the first time that a Chinese president attended a major overseas sports event. It was also Xi’s first foreign trip in 2014, and the second year in a row that his first trip abroad was to Russia.

During the visit Xi held a formal meeting with his counterpart, Russian president Vladimir Putin. This is the sixth face-to face talk that the two presidents have held in less than a year. According to reports in the Russian media, Putin also intends to visit China two times this year. It is widely believed that these frequent contacts symbolize that the Sino-Russian relationship is going through a period of grace, which will promote the deepening cooperation of these two large countries.

Sinology in Russia working for the country’s reform and development

It is well known that Russia has taken up a significant position in the field of international Sinology. “They started very early compared with other countries, and the field is marked by large investments and a wide-ranging research field”, explains Liu Shuang, vice-president of the Heilongjiang Provincial Academy of Social Sciences.

This systematic sinological research, which covers all the main fields of study, can be said to date back to individual translations of the classical Chinese works produced by the Russian cultural elite. Sinology in Russia has in fact been gaining pace for the last three centuries. Liu divides the course of the field’s development into four stages, including the beginning in the early 18th century, and its further development in the 19th century, in the Soviet times and in contemporary Russia. Sinology in Russia has now entered a new period in the context of the current deepening of Sino-Russian cooperation.

Professor Liu Ruomei, from the National Research Center of Overseas Sinology of Beijing Foreign Studies University, says that in Russia Chinese issues are researched not only within the Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS), but also in nearly thirty universities and colleges. In recent years these institutes have made a large number of academic achievements, including the compiling of the Great General Encyclopedia of Chinese Spiritual Culture by the Institute of Far Eastern Studies of the RAS. This work includes six volumes, which present the achievements of Russian Sinology in the last 300 years.

Since the start of the 21st century Sinology in Russia has developed rapidly, characterized by a wide-ranging research field, an increasing interdisciplinary focus and an emerging research vision. Professor Liu Ruomei claims that Russia has always paid attention to the experience and achievements of China’s reform and opening up. In addition, the numerous translations produced have become important tools for Russians to understand traditional Chinese culture, while studying globalization and regional issues has become a gateway to analyze China’s development.

Russian studies in China seeking to advance their research methods

At present, the institutes and researchers engaging in Russian studies in China are mainly to be found in Beijing, Shanghai, the three provinces of the northeast of China and the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region. These researchers tend to focus on different areas according to their location, with those based in Beijing paying more attention to political consulting and academic research, while those based in Shanghai tend to focus mainly on international cooperation.

“Russian studies in China tend to be good at keeping track of the important issues”, Yang resumes, “and mainly focus on the relationship between Russia and other large counties, Russian energy economy and diplomacy, and non-traditional security issues related to Russia”.

Undoubtedly Chinese scholars would like to draw their own experience and lessons from the transformation of Russia. Pang Dapeng, a research fellow of the Institute of Russian, Eastern European and Central Asian Studies of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, feels that the transformation of Russia provides rich and fresh material for the development of political studies, especially for the formation and development of the study of transitional politics. Chinese scholars have analyzed the ideological changes which have taken place in Russia and their influence on the strategic choices and institutional evolution of the country, and attempted to understand the course which the development of Russian social politics has taken over these last 20 years.

Chinese cultural researchers have also kept a watchful eye on the transformation of Russia. Sun Shufang, director of the Center for Russian Language Literature and Culture Studies of Heilongjiang University, claims that research on Russian traditional culture and its transformation mainly centers on the relationship between Russian culture and its modernization, and especially on contemporary Russian philosophy and culture.

Some scholars, when interviewed, also expressed their opinion on the current level of Russian studies in China. Yang claims that it already has the ability to engage in international dialogue in certain fields, while it still possesses huge potential for progress in the cultural and academic fields.

Both the evolution of the global patterns and the huge transitions taking place in Eurasia provide precious opportunity for the development of Russian studies in China. Pang suggests that the ability to make a breakthrough in these studies will largely depend on the progress of the research methods.

A promising future for Sino-Russian academic exchange and cooperation

It is a key task for Chinese institutes to establish long-term cooperation with others, enhance the quality of their academic conferences, broaden the fields of scientific research and cooperation and increase scholarly exchange visits. Liu Shuang claims that unprecedented progress has already been achieved in certain fields following the development of the Sino-Russian relationship, deepening the strategic cooperation and partnership between these two countries.

Although Russia and China’s mutual research has attained huge achievements, it still needs to be further deepened. “This is closely linked with the structure of the research teams and the current state of research”, says Yang. Compared with research on certain developed countries and regions within Russia and China, Russian and Chinese studies face problems such as insufficient funds, which to some extent limit communication between these two countries. In addition, the two countries lack a good reserve of new talent. M.L. Titarenko, director of the Institute of Far Eastern Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences, claims that Russians express increasing interest in learning about China and the Chinese language, but few young people want to engage in Sinology due to the relatively low salaries. Statistically, the average age of Russian sinologists is over 60.

The Chinese version appeared in Chinese Social Sciences Today, No. 557, 10th February, 2014.

Chinese link: http://www.csstoday.net/xueshuzixun/guoneixinwen/87601.html

　　Translated by Chen Meina

　　Revised by Gabriele Corsetti