The Image of the Chinese in Amur Literature (Articulation of the Issue of Social and Cultural Interaction in Far Eastern Geopolitical and Literary Space)

Abstract

The whole history of contacts between Russia and China is a complex multilayered field with many components. Despite the accumulated historical material, there are many blank spots in this field. This article describes the image of the Chinese in Amur literature in the historical context. It should be noted that the subject of the research manifests itself in the conditions of close cultural interaction of the peoples of Russia and China contacting in a single geopolitical and sociocultural space, owing to some objective differences, without interpenetrating. Due to a number of factors, one should consider the Russian-Chinese cooperation in the border areas a phenomenon in the history of the Sino-Russian relations. In the article, the authors explore the image of Amur life and its sociocultural and ethnographic side in the 19th and 20th centuries referring to texts of Far Eastern authors. The analysis relies on fictional and nonfictional works that help consider the Far Eastern reality from different sides. Amur literature reflects the Chinese reality with different degrees of detail and credibility, without providing, however, a comprehensive interpretation of the image of the Chinese, because of not only political, economic and other similar factors, which the authors pay special attention to, but because of the construction of the literary field. The article provides historical commentaries based on a wide range of archival materials, which helps build a comprehensive picture of the life, and activities of the cross-border population in the Amur region taking into account the permanent sociocultural cooperation of the peoples of the two countries.

Keywords

• амурская литература
• регионалистика
• международные отношения
• межкультурная коммуникация
• Приамурье
• приграничное население
• социокультурное взаимодействие.