Professor Ren Guangxuan from Peking University Delivered Lecture on “China-Russia Cultural Bridge” at INRTU
As part of the Chinese Culture and Art Festival “On the Shores of Lake Baikal”, Professor Ren Guangxuan fr om Peking University delivered a lecture titled “The China-Russia Cultural Bridge: Face to Face with Russian Celebrities” to INRTU students and staff.
The renowned Chinese philologist’s acquaintance with Russia began in 1989. He has visited Moscow, St. Petersburg, Novosibirsk, Kazan, Vladivostok, and many other cities. Over his more than ten-year academic journey in the Soviet Union and Russia, Ren Guangxuan established contacts with a wide variety of people – from university teachers to a Marshal of the Soviet Union and a cosmonaut, from an Academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences to a People's Artist of the USSR.
In 2015, the Peking University professor met with veterans to mark the 70th anniversary of the Soviet people’s victory in the Great Patriotic War, including a visit to the home of Marshal of the Soviet Union Dmitry Yazov, a Siberian. The military theme continued in his communications with the First Deputy Minister of Defense of the USSR, Army General Mikhail Moiseyev, and other military leaders.
It is noteworthy that Ren Guangxuan was personally acquainted with cosmonaut Alexei Leonov, the first person to conduct a spacewalk.
He has maintained a communication with the Rector of Moscow State University, Academician Viktor Sadovnichy, for thirty years. While working at MSU and heading the Confucius Institute, Ren Guangxuan made a significant contribution to the development of China-Russia relations.
An interesting fact is that Ren Guangxuan was one of the participants in Andrei Konchalovsky’s documentary series “Culture is Destiny”, wh ere he introduced viewers to the specifics of Chinese culture through the example of family values.
Additionally, the lecture audience learned that the Chinese scholar met Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn and was a friend of Valentin Rasputin. He has translated many works by Russian and Soviet authors into Chinese, including books by Nikolai Gogol, Leo Tolstoy, as well as Valentin Rasputin, Lyudmila Ulitskaya, and others.
In his article “My Memories of the Writer V. Rasputin”, Ren Guangxuan writes about his meetings and friendship with one of the most prominent representatives of “village prose”. This essay is an important testimony to the friendship between the two writers and their mutual interest in Russian and Chinese cultures. The professor fondly recalls his first meeting with Valentin Rasputin at the international conference “Alexander Solzhenitsyn: Problems of Artistic Creativity”, held in Moscow in 2003. Subsequently, their friendly ties strengthened. For example, in 2003, Ren Guangxuan and Valentin Rasputin participated in a discussion of the story “Ivan's Daughter, Ivan's Mother” at a roundtable meeting in the Union of Writers of Russia. In 2006, they met at the China-Russia Writers’ Forum in Beijing, and in 2014, at the award ceremony for the “Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn Prize in Literature” in Moscow.
Ren Guangxuan translated a collection of Valentin Rasputin's works into Chinese in 2004. The translation of the story “Into the Same Land” was first published in the journal “World Literature” and was later included, along with other translations by Ren Guangxuan, in the book “Selected New Works of Rasputin”, published by the renowned Chinese “People's Literature Publishing House” in 2004.
INRTU students listened to the Chinese scholar’s lecture in Russian with great interest, noting its relevance as 2024-2025 have been declared the Years of Culture of China and Russia.
Background:
Ren Guangxuan (born in 1944) is a Doctor of Philological Sciences, Professor at Peking University, a Russianist, former Deputy Director of the School of Foreign Languages at Peking University, a board member of the Chinese Association of Studies of Foreign Literature, and an honorary member of the Union of Writers of Russia. He has been awarded the Russia-China Friendship Medal, the M. Gorky Medal, and the N. Ostrovsky Medal. He teaches courses to students and postgraduates on “History of Russian Literature”, “Selected Readings in Russian Literature”, and “Russian Literature and Bible”.
Ren Guangxuan is the author of many books and scientific articles devoted to Russian literature and culture and is actively engaged in knowledge exchange with Russian colleagues. He actively cooperates with higher education institutions in the Russian Federation, delivering lectures and participating in conferences.
