Subjectivities of Russian Traders at the Border with China

Caroline Humphrey

doi:10.22439/cjas.v39i1.6177

Abstract

This paper draws attention to a relatively understudied aspect of cross-border trade: the relation between the subjectivities of traders and the geo-political situation they find themselves in. Among Russian traders at the border with China, discourses on comparative civilisation, memories of mid-twentieth century Soviet dominance and ambivalent appreciation of China’s present riches are integral to everyday practices. It is argued that a theoretical concept of melancholia is helpful to understand the traders’ self-reflective and diverse reactions. At this highly securitised border, in the absence of deep social relations with Chinese partners, the goods purchased, consumed and traded appear as vivid alternative foci for emotions. The article suggests that an anthropological approach to qualia (experiential feelings aroused by material objects) provide a useful heuristic for discussion in this situation.

Highlights

This article is concerned with the understanding of the practices, across the stark northeastern border between Russia and China, one that is political and economic, social, linguistic and cultural
Caroline Humphrey general or the Sino-Russian border in particular, but rather to explore a more social anthropological question: the complex subjectivities of Russian citizens, who cannot ignore the existence of the securitised work with to suggest a widening of the parameters of research on cross-border traders by taking into account the prevailing ideological and historical suppositions about developmental difference between Russia and China; and following on from this, to suggest how the present evident contradiction of these presumptions gives rise to a complex subjectivity that is apparent above all in the sensations, affect, imaginative properties and cynicism attached to the material goods traded
Many early twentieth century theories that found their way into public consciousness, from the Eurasianist to the Marxist, proposed the Russian social order to be more advanced than the Chinese, and

Summary

Introduction

This article is concerned with the understanding of the practices, across the stark northeastern border between Russia and China, one that is political and economic, social, linguistic and cultural. Subjectivities of Russian Traders at the Border with China achievement but as an age-old characteristic of the innately superior Chinese culture.

Results

Conclusion