Reception of Russian village prose in China in the 1980s

The paper examines the process of translating Russian village prose into the Chinese language within a historical-cultural context. The research aims to identify the peculiarities of the reception of Russian village prose in China in the 1980s. Special attention is given to considering the naming of Russian village prose in Chinese literary studies. An overview of scholarly-critical articles dedicated to Russian village prose is provided. It is found that Chinese critics had an extremely contradictory attitude towards village prose due to the specificity of the historical context influenced by a particular period in Chinese history. Chinese critics highly appreciated the aesthetics and themes of village prose, yet they perceived the ideas reflected in the works of village writers as overly conservative. The influence of Russian village prose on Chinese literature is further explored against the backdrop of the reception of Russian literature in general in China. Scientific novelty lies in a comprehensive study of the reception of Russian village prose in China in the 1980s, which has not been previously researched. As a result, the paper ascertains that Russian village prose contributed to the emergence of Chinese environmental literature despite the waning influence of Russian literature on Chinese literature in the late 1980s.