Russian Emigration's Literary Heritage in China: a Cultural Code

Abstract

The article is devoted to the literary heritage of the Russian emigration in China and the Russian cultural code, which was preserved in the works of emigrants. A brief overview of the scientific literature, which formed the basis of the research methodology, and a description of the centers of Russian emigration in the Middle Kingdom - Harbin and Shanghai, the living conditions of emigrants are given. The relevance of the topic is due to the attention of modern researchers to the insufficiently studied literary heritage of the “eastern branch” of the Russian emigration.The material for the research was the works from the ten-volume “Literature of Russian emigrants in China” published in 2005 in Beijing. In this work, an integrated research approach is used, when various literary methods are combined with general scientific, linguistic, and private ones. The ten-volume collection includes the works of almost a hundred of Russian writers and poets in China, who for various reasons found themselves in emigration in Harbin, Shanghai and other Chinese cities. This work reveals the frequency themes of emigre creativity: Motherland, China-stepmother, historical events, faith in God, separation, longing for the Fatherland, etc. Basically, these are cultural codes, encoded information transmitted to us by our ancestors and allowing us to identify Russian culture: “Motherland”， “Holy Russia”，“Faith”，“God”，“Icon”，“Love”，“Home”， “Family”，“Soul”，“Hope”，“War”，“Separation”，“Foreign”， “Longing for the Homeland”，etc., as well as concepts (code units) that make up the concept sphere of the Russian picture of the world.The peculiar cultural mission of the Russian writers and poets of the “eastern branch” is that their literature is as much a cultural monument of their time as the works of emigrant writers of the “western branch”. Russian emigrants not only preserved their native culture, language, traditions, religion in exile but also increased the cultural heritage of Russia. The literary work of Russian emigrants in China should become a full-fledged part of the great Russian literature. Keywords: Russian emigrant literature, Russia, China, cultural heritage, cultural code, theme