MOSCOW, October 18, Anastasia Silkina. Political ties are strengthened through bilateral visits, and cultural ties are strengthened through tours and film distribution. Relations between Russia and China in the field of art are becoming stronger. How our stars are greeted in the Celestial Empire and how the Chinese imagine us — in the material.
Immortal classics: Tchaikovsky and Russian ballet
There is constant demand for performances by classical groups from Russia in China.
The Mariinsky Theater Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Valery Gergiev has already visited the Middle Kingdom twice this year. Tickets for three March concerts in Beijing sold out in 20 minutes. In June, the maestro and musicians performed at the Great Wall of China with works by Glinka, Tchaikovsky, Rimsky-Korsakov, Prokofiev and Stravinsky.
A month before the event, tickets for concerts of the Academic Symphony Orchestra of the St. Petersburg Philharmonic and Tchaikovsky Competition laureate pianist Daniil Kharitonov were sold out — in June they performed works by Rachmaninoff in Beijing, Tanjin, Wuhan, Nanjing, Guangzhou, Changsha and Shanghai.
In July, the Bolshoi Theater ballet visited Beijing on its first tour after a five-year break. The artists performed Don Quixote four times and gave two gala concerts. According to the artistic director of the troupe, Mahar Vaziev, the audience greeted “very warmly, sometimes even with some emotional elements of violence.”
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“How they emotionally accept, with such screams and exclamations — I want to tell you that in Russia this does not always happen,” Vaziev emphasized.
The Boris Eifman Ballet Theater is next: a six-week tour of the Middle Kingdom starts on October 26. The St. Petersburg team will visit Shenzhen, Shanghai, Nanjing, Xi'an, Suzhou and Beijing. The performances «Anna Karenina» and «Eugene Onegin» will be shown.
Exporting pop stars: love for strong voices
The Chinese value talent, so few pop stars achieve popularity with them. Among them are Vitas and Polina Gagarina.
Vitas long ago realized how promising the Chinese music market was, and bet on it: he included songs in Chinese in his repertoire, starred in local films, and appears on television. The public responded in kind — they even erected a monument to the artist in Shanghai.
Gagarina in 2019 took part in the popular music show Singer in the republic. The Russian singer took fifth place in the competition, but in two months she managed to win the hearts of millions of listeners. A recording of her performance of Viktor Tsoi’s song “Cuckoo” on YouTube was watched 39 million times.
Success of Russian cinema: «Movement» up», «He is a Dragon», «Smeshariki»
China has become a traditional platform for the distribution of Russian films.
The film “Moving Up” (2017) with Vladimir Mashkov as the coach of the Soviet basketball team showed good returns. Residents of the Celestial Empire liked the blockbuster «Crew» (2016): viewers were amazed by the courage, determination and heroism of the Russians.
China is very fond of war films. «Stalingrad» (2013) achieved success at the local box office.
The fantasy “He’s a Dragon” (2015) about the love of a Slavic princess and a mythological monster is also very popular. Chinese fans actively monitored the social networks of the leading actor Matvey Lykov and were extremely disappointed that the Russian actor was already married.
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And children enjoy watching Russian animation. The cartoons “Be-be-bears”, “Leo and Tig”, “Fairytale Patrol”, “Magic Lantern”, “Arkady Parovozov to the Rescue” and others were adapted for them — they re-voiced, changed the graphics, and in some places even adjusted the script taking into account the cultural characteristics of the country.
«Smeshariki» has its own fan club in China. The leaders in viewing are also the animated series “Masha and the Bear” and “Tim and Tom”. And the full-length “The Snow Queen” is even more popular in the Celestial Empire than in Russia.
Russians in Chinese films: military men and lovers
Russians are frequent characters in Chinese historical films and TV series dedicated to the 20th century. As a rule, these are military personnel, nurses, pilots and astronauts. But there are exceptions.
In 2018, a multi-part series was released melodrama «Boundaries of Love». The main character, Victor, is a Soviet announcer who works as an exchange student at a Beijing radio station, where he falls in love with student Wen Yiqiu. They are not destined to be together: Victor is deported due to interstate difficulties. But young people continue to love each other even at a distance and meet again when relations between Moscow and Beijing improve.