Eastern Phoenix and Chinese Fenghuang in Maria Korostovets' poem about Empress Cixi

The article examines a poem by Maria Pavlovna Korostovets, a Russian poet of the "Eastern branch" of emigration. The text in question was published in the collective poetry collection "The Isle" (Shanghai, 1946), in the part named "Phoenix". The poem belongs to a series of Korostovets’ works dedicated to China, her being the daughter and daughter-in-law of Russian diplomats who worked in the East and herself had spent a significant part of life in China. The heroine of Korostovets's "Phoenix" is Empress Cixi (1835-1908), who had a reputation as a strong and cruel ruler. In the Russian poet's portrayal, Cixi appears in an unexpected light, as a child who is sensitive and vulnerable but has a sense of a great future. The method of slow reading is used, traditional symbols belonging to different national cultures are compared, and the application of a specific symbol (the magic bird) in the works of authors of a certain literary circle (the "Eastern branch" of the Russian emigration, the "Friday" circle in Shanghai, and the poets whose poems were included in the collection "The Island") is traced. It is shown how foreign cultural symbols are assimilated and transformed in the works of an émigré poet who found herself in a different civilizational environment. The article examines the fusion of the images of the Western phoenix and the Chinese fenghuang. Using the gender duality inherent in the fenghuang in Chinese mythology, Korostovets depicts Empress Cixi, who demonstrates the qualities traditionally attributed to male rulers. Korostovets contrasts her image of Cixi with the common perception of the empress as "cruel, conservative, and immoral". Korostovets' poem reveals the "simple" and "childlike" aspects of the empress's image, emphasizing her humanity. Thus, Korostovets' poem combines cultural symbols and mythological imagery, serving as a vivid example of the interaction between "self" and "other."