Статья 'Художественная деятельность российско-советских художников в Харбине и Шанхае в период Китайской Республики (1912–1949)' - журнал 'Человек и культура' - NotaBene.ru
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Artistic activity of Russian-Soviet artists in Harbin and Shanghai China during the period of the Republic of China (1912–1949)

Bai Tsze

Postgraduate student, Department of History of Art, St. Petersburg State University

199034, Russia, Saint Petersburg, Mendeleevskaya Liniya str., 5

bbbbbeoooo@gmail.com
Other publications by this author
 

 

DOI:

10.25136/2409-8744.2023.5.43954

EDN:

CAHDXJ

Received:

04-09-2023


Published:

06-11-2023


Abstract: This article mainly studies and analyzes the artistic activity of Soviet artists in Harbin and Shanghai during the period of the Republic of China. Due to their special geographical location, Harbin and Shanghai have always been centers of dissemination and artistic exchange of Soviet art and culture in China. The subject of the study is various types of art education and artistic activities that Soviet artists carried out in China during the period of the Republic of China. The object of the study is the influence that the spread of Soviet realistic painting in China had on the development of modern Chinese art in the XX century. The author pays special attention to the analysis of the profound impact that the appearance of various art studios created in China, acquaintance with the artistic work of Soviet artists, as well as training with the owl, have had on the development of modern Chinese art. Soviet art has been the basis for the development of modern Chinese art from the very beginning. The novelty of this study lies in the fact that the author addresses a little – explored topic – how the arrival of Soviet artists in China, which coincided with the "Movement of Foreign Painting" in the Republic of China, influenced the formation of Chinese art. Soviet artists strongly supported the innovative artistic creativity of Chinese artists and at the same time contributed to the dominance of Soviet realistic art in the artistic landscape during the formation of China. The main conclusions of the study are that the mass spread of Soviet art in China created new ground for traditional Chinese art, gave a continuation and a new life to traditional painting. To a certain extent, this influenced the artistic and aesthetic preferences of that time and even the general public, and also directly affected the development of Chinese art education in the XX century.


Keywords:

Soviet artist, oil painting, period of the Republic of China, artistic communication, painting by Russian emigrants, Russian immigrant artist, painting, Shanghai, Harbin, art education

This article is automatically translated. You can find original text of the article here.

introduction

The period of the Republic of China (1912-1949), which is intermediate between the fall of the Qing Dynasty and the formation of New China, marked a turning point in various spheres of Chinese life. In the early years of the existence of the Republic of China, the new cultural policy of the Government, which can be described as "the spread of Western education to the East", contributed to the process of modernization of China and the preservation of Chinese traditional culture and art. At this time, Western ideas and concepts, including Russian and Soviet ones, are penetrating into China, under the influence of which serious changes have taken place in the field of politics, economics, culture and art.

Western European philosophy and art greatly influenced the life of Chinese society during this period. However, due to political and geographical reasons, the most serious and profound influence on Chinese culture and art during the period of the Republic of China was exerted by Russian and Soviet art, in particular realistic painting. 

The interaction of Chinese and Russian art took place in different ways. Below we will discuss the various types of artistic activities that were carried out by Russian and Soviet artists in China. On the one hand, the exhibitions held in China contributed to the acquaintance with the artistic work of Russian and Soviet painters, and at the same time the artists themselves were engaged in teaching at art academies in China, as well as creating various art studios.

Russian Russian and Soviet artists influenced the formation of Chinese art in the Chinese cities of Harbin and Shanghai, which, due to their special geographical location — the Chinese-Eastern Railway was located in Harbin at that time, and there was a port in Shanghai — have always been centers of artistic exchange and dissemination of Russian and Soviet art. art in China. Against the background of the "spread of Western education to the East" and the Movement for a New culture (including painting) during the Republic of China, the development of art in Harbin and Shanghai was accompanied by the comprehensive influence and spread of Russian foreign art. Russian Russian emigrants fled to Harbin and Shanghai after the October Revolution of 1917, and this also explains the special importance of Russian culture for these Chinese cities.

Russian Russian settlers founded the city of Harbin in the north of China, which was actually a Russian colony, and before the revolution its main population were Russians and Chinese. It was known as a city where emigrants from different countries gathered, among whom there were representatives of different ethnic groups and faiths. The mixing and symbiosis of Chinese and Russian culture lay at the heart of the life of the city of Harbin at the beginning of the XX century. Although Shanghai was rightfully considered the Russian art center in East Asian countries, in fact many artists began their professional artistic activity in Harbin [1, p. 66].

A preliminary study of the development of modern art in Harbin and Shanghai is part of the study of the history of the development of modern Chinese art. And the peculiarities of the history of these two cities require appropriate historical research, which will include Chinese-foreign cultural exchanges and Chinese-foreign political relations. This kind of related research was fruitfully conducted in the 1920s and 1930s, but after China survived the war and the "cultural revolution", research in various scientific fields declined. Research and discussions on Chinese art culture and other aspects have been very sparse.

Russian Russian emigration studies devoted to the world of art after the October Revolution, in the 1930s, most of them were materials related to Russian artists who lived in Paris. Russian Russian expatriate artists were also present and active in China at that time, but there were still very few studies of the artistic activities of Russian painters who left for China after the October Revolution, both in Russia and abroad.

Let's turn to the review of sources that can help us to get a general idea of the activities of Russian and Soviet artists in Harbin and Shanghai. The book by I. Y. Korostovets "Russia in the Far East" is a memoir that describes historical events and impressions during his stay in China. It belongs to the type of early research that focused on the general historical picture of the time of tsarist Russia. In the XXI century, due to the gradual opening of books and archives in the Far East and Northeast of China, research on issues related to the earlier period in the Harbin area has become more in-depth.

The book of N. P. Kradina "Harbin — Russian Atlantis" introduces the trajectory of the development of the city of Harbin from the Russian point of view and depicts a special history of the development of the city of Harbin, using a large number of detailed archival materials and serious arguments. The book covers such topics as the fate of Russian foreign artists and architects of Harbin, Orthodox church architecture, the work of Russian architects in Harbin, etc.

Relevant studies on the art and culture of Harbin and Shanghai also include a large number of memoirs written by Russian immigrants who lived in China. The book "Russian Artists in China" includes the memoirs of the artist V. E. Kuznetsova and others. (compiled by T. A. Lebedeva). Just like the "Final in China" by P. P. Balakshin, these are special materials illustrating the life of Russian immigrants from the Far East. Although these memoirs reflect personal experiences, we can still find in them the characteristics of that time.

For relevant studies on the history of contemporary Chinese local art, relatively representative monographs are "Communication of Eastern and Western Art" by Su Liwen and "The Influence of Western Art on Chinese Art" by Xu Beihong. Two well-known Chinese scientists early drew attention to the problem of exchange between the art of the East and the West, investigated the patterns, principles and meaning of mutual influence. "The History of Modern Chinese Oil Painting" by Li Chao is a study devoted to the development of fine art in certain regions.

Shi Fan's book "A Study of Harbin's Multiculturalism in the 1910s and 1920s" describes the development of Harbin's urban art from different perspectives, such as immigration and culture against the background of colonial history.

Russian Russian Culture Map in Shanghai by Wang Zhicheng summarizes all aspects of the profound influence of Russian and Soviet immigrants on the culture and art of Shanghai. Japanese scholar Mamoru Seki drew attention to the exchange that took place between Eastern and Western art in the 1930s, and wrote "The History of the spread of Western Art in the East", which talks about the spread of European art in East Asia. British scientist Michael Sullivan described the revival of Chinese art in the XX century under the influence of Western art and culture in his masterpiece "Art and Artists of China of the XX Century" (Art and Artists of Twentieth-Century China).

All these studies show the importance and complexity of research concerning the exchange of Chinese and Western art, and gradually give a clearer picture of the rise and decline of Chinese painting from tradition to modernity. The study of regional and local art history allows us to look at the development and evolution of modern Chinese art from different points of view. Thanks to the above simple introductory research, we see that the insufficient degree of elaboration of the problem and the lack of research results on the history of Chinese art of the period of the Republic of China gives us the opportunity to expand our research.

I. THE HISTORY OF ARTISTIC INTERACTION BETWEEN CHINA AND RUSSIA

Due to the special geopolitical relations, the Russian Empire, followed by the Soviet Union, in a certain historical period became an important channel for China to perceive Western contemporary art. Russian Russian and Soviet painting, if we trace the origins of the influence of Russian and Soviet painting on China, we will find that it began with a visit to China by professional artists who were part of the Russian Ecclesiastical Mission in Beijing from 1830 to 1864. In 1727, the Qing government signed the Treaty of Kyakhta with the Russian Empire. The agreement opened up new opportunities for cultural and artistic exchange between the two countries and at the same time allowed Russia to send a spiritual mission to China [2, p. 96]. From that moment until 1864 — it should be noted that before the signing of the Chuguchak Protocol between Beijing and St. Petersburg, which took place in 1864, the mission in Beijing was under the control of the Asian Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs [3, p. 155] — Russia sent a total of 14 spiritual missions to China, while during the period from the eleventh to the fourteenth spiritual mission, on behalf of the Russian emperor, they were accompanied by a professional artist who was enrolled in the mission staff. The participants of these four spiritual missions of the Russian Empire were four artists: A.M. Legashev, K. I. Korsalin, I. I. Chmutov and L. S. Igor. The main task of the full-time artist was to explore the social culture of China, geography, nature, folk customs, etc., creating an objective view of Chinese life in his paintings [4, p. 176].

The ways of expression and style of the artists of the Russian Ecclesiastical Mission and the Western European painters Jean-Denis Attire and Giuseppe Castiglione, who came to China a little earlier, differed significantly. Firstly, most of the works of the painters of the spiritual mission appear in the form of realistic images. Whether they are officials and nobles depicted by A.M. Legashev or beggars and refugees in the works of L. S. Igor — all of them are focused on the objectivity of pictorial expression and relatively accurately reflect the social landscape of China at that time. Secondly, most of the artists of the spiritual mission were trained in European classical painting, and the style of their work is far from the style of traditional Chinese painting. This is their difference from J. Castiglione, the imperial artist of the Qing Dynasty, who combined his method of expressing oil painting with traditional Chinese painting, so that his works would more correspond to Chinese aesthetics [5, p. 183].

The few surviving works of artists of the Russian Ecclesiastical Mission are currently in various museums in Russia. Understanding of this period of history is also limited to a small circle of art history researchers. Thus, this short-lived specific exchange of paintings, which had no effect on Chinese painting and public aesthetic activity, opened up prospects for Russian painters that allowed them to engage in various types of art in China in the twentieth century.

II. THE ACTIVITIES OF RUSSIAN AND SOVIET ARTISTS IN HARBIN AND SHANGHAI

The October Revolution of 1917 destroyed the old social order in Russia, and huge changes took place in the art world. Individual groups of artists moved to Harbin, Shanghai, Beijing and other cities in China. They opened workshops, held art exhibitions, taught art and artistic creativity, created art galleries, carried out international art exchange and distributed Russian art in China. Most of the artists also participated in activities such as stage design, poster promotion, publication editing, etc. For example, the magazine "Rubezh" (1926-1945), founded by Russian emigrant artists, was a literary and artistic weekly with the longest period of publication, the largest circulation and the widest range of influence. Russian Russian journal recorded a large number of artistic events from the life of Russian expatriate painters and became an important material for studying the artistic life of Russian painters in Harbin [6, p. 61].

Due to the special geographical conditions of Harbin and the location of the railway junction, the influence of Russian painting on Heilongjiang Province was significantly more significant than on other provinces. Although exhibitions and exchanges involving Western oil paintings directly took place infrequently, none of the oil painting exhibitions in China did not bypass the special city of Harbin. Already in October 1913, the Railway Assembly held an exhibition of works by Parisian artists, at which a total of 265 works by more than 70 Parisian artists were presented [7. p. 112]. In addition, Russian artists participated in various artistic events, which also played an active role in the spread of Western painting in Harbin.

At the beginning of the XX century, Russian emigrants created many art schools and studios in Harbin, the largest and most famous among which is the Lotus Art Studio, opened in 1922 [8, p. 265]. The founders of this art studio were M. A. Kichigin, A. K. Kholodilov and several other professional artists from among Russian emigrants. For many students who later became professional artists, "Lotus" turned out to be a real school of skill [9, p. 59]. Most of the teachers of the Lotus Studio were talented artists, all of them had specialized education and professional teaching skills. M. A. Kichigin taught oil painting and drawing, A. L. Kamensky taught sculpture, the teachers of the art history course were A. A. Bernardazzi and V. M. Anastasiev, and the modeling course was taught by the famous painting teacher A. K. Kholodilov in Harbin at that time [10, p. 192].

The soul of the studio was M. A. Kichigin, one of the most influential artists of Harbin in the 1920s. He taught at the Lotus from 1920 to 1927. His oil paintings, portraits, theater sets and costume sketches were very popular. At the same time, his paintings "Old Calligrapher", "Portrait of an Old Man", "Beggar", "Pavilion on Jun-Hai Lake", "Abandoned Temple" and his other works show that the artist also painted a lot of local landscapes and everyday scenes. His wife and student — V. E. Kuznetsova-Kichigina — entered the "Lotus" in the 1920s. Her style was very close to that of her husband, and most of her paintings had a Chinese theme. Many of their works feature an oriental artistic concept: Chinese fishermen's boats, small bridges and running water, courtyard gardens, peasants and monks. In the late 1980s, a large retrospective exhibition by V. E. Kuznetsova-Kichigina was held at the Yaroslavl Art Museum, where works from various museum and private collections were presented. Materials from the catalog published for the exhibition have been repeatedly included in various Russian and Chinese publications [9, p. 94].

In 1928, the Kichigins moved to Shanghai, where they continued their activities. During their stay there, they took an active part in the cultural life of the city and held art exhibitions. In 1931 they became members of the Shanghai International Art Club. In just six months, from June to December 1931, M. A. Kichigin, his wife and other painters held three joint art exhibitions [11, p. 240]. In 1947, the Kichigin family returned to Russia with their works. During their stay in China, M. A. Kichigin and his wife painted many oil and watercolor paintings. These works were exhibited at the exhibition "Russian Artists in China", organized by the Yaroslavl Art Museum in Russia in 2004 [12, p. 81]. We can say that M. A. Kichigin, who is considered one of the great Russian artists of the XX century, created his main works of art in China. All his life he was actively engaged in teaching. Most of M. A. Kichigin's students became world-famous artists. Many of their paintings are dedicated to natural landscapes and reflect the customs and traditions of China.

After the Lotus Workshop, various art schools and studios were successively created in Harbin, which existed in parallel with the Lotus Art Studio or continued its activities and nurtured artistic talents. Russian artists have always been outstanding painting teachers in various art schools in China during this period. 

On September 22, 1922, with the direct participation and support of representatives of all strata of society in China and Russia, the Society for the Study of the Manchurian Region (OIMC, now the Society for the Study of Cultural Development of the Special Region of the Eastern Provinces — ORVP) was established [13, p. 29]. It was the first multi-faceted art group with local characteristics, created by Russian emigrant artists in Harbin [14, p. 1]. Subsequently, the association held many exhibitions, including three art exhibitions in the period from 1923 to 1925, inviting Russian and Japanese artists to participate in them. In the 1920s and 1930s, the Society was actively engaged in artistic creativity and organized exhibitions, and some of its artists, such as A. E. Stepanov and A. N. Klementyev, deserve attention because they participated in social and cultural activities, opening exhibitions, teaching Chinese and Russian students and thereby contributing to the development of art and culture in the Harbin area.

In the late 1920s, the Harbin Art College was established. It was a private art school, which in November 1929 became a state school and changed its name to the Provincial College of Fine Arts of the Special District of the Eastern Province [15, p. 70]. According to the "Northeastern Yearbook", at the beginning of the school's activities, there were two classes in which 54 students were enrolled — 38 boys and 16 girls — and 27 teachers worked. The total annual financing was about 25,679 yuan [16, p. 803]. In this art school, the department of Western painting mostly employed foreign teachers, mainly from Russia. The Western system of education and Western curricula were also introduced as part of the curriculum. Special subjects included watercolor painting, art history, art anatomy, fundamentals of color science, perspective, art theory, educational psychology, etc.

In the early 1930s, A. E. Stepanov worked at the Provincial College of Fine Arts of the Special District of the Eastern Province, who mainly taught drawing and oil painting courses. A. E. Stepanov arrived in Harbin in 1924 and during his stay there taught at various schools and studios. He worked as a production designer at the Harbin Theater, created murals of Orthodox churches, designed stage decorations and participated in the design of buildings [17, p. 60]. He also painted a large number of landscape paintings. The most frequent themes and decorations in his paintings are the golden shoals of the Sungari River and the expanses of Manchuria. On January 2, 1941, he held a solo exhibition dedicated to the twenty-fifth anniversary of his creative activity [1, p. 66]. The exhibition featured about 60 oil paintings, including landscapes, portraits, historical paintings and theatrical scenery. The unique creative handwriting of the artist and the design style of the characters made the audience stop and admire.

A. N. Klementyev was a student of the outstanding Russian painter I. E. Repin and one of the most active artists of Harbin in the 1930s-1940s. He came to Harbin in 1931, when many of the artists left there for Shanghai and other places. A. N. Klementyev decided to stay in Harbin. In 1931, A. N. Klementyev began teaching students, creating new works and organizing art exhibitions in various art schools and private workshops in Harbin. Once his students were the famous Chinese writer, translator, artist, former editor-in-chief of the magazine "World Literature" Gao Man and the famous Harbin painter Han Jingsheng.

Another artist, M. M. Lobanov, came to Harbin in 1931 and lived there until 1954. Famous Chinese oil painters, Sun Yuntai, Li Shixue, were his students. M. M. Lobanov loved the landscapes of the suburbs of Harbin, few of the Russian painters who emigrated to this city were so passionate about its natural landscapes. The artist used his unique technique to paint landscapes depicting the Sungari River, as well as cathedrals and various corners of the city of Harbin. This talented Russian painter became an honored Harbin landscape painter. In 1939 M. M. Lobanov published his own album with landscapes of Harbin [18, p. 1]. During the years he lived in this city, he created hundreds of beautiful oil paintings and sketches.

A large number of Russian and Chinese artists gathered in Harbin, both professionals and amateurs, played an important role in the history of Chinese art. These artists continued their activities in a difficult historical period and made a great contribution to the development of Harbin art. In the early and mid-20th century, Russian culture and art were the basis for the development of art education in Harbin. "According to the "Monthly of Education" for 1929, there were 100 public and private primary and secondary schools in Harbin at that time, including 46 secondary schools and vocational schools and 54 elementary schools and kindergartens. In addition to primary and secondary schools, such as Donghua Secondary School, Guanyi Secondary School, there were also various primary and secondary schools in China founded by emigrants from Russia and other countries, such as Pushkin Secondary School, Dostoevsky Secondary School, Jewish secondary school, Ukrainian primary school, etc. D. Different schools implemented different educational systems, used different languages for teaching, used additional teaching materials in their curricula and hired their own qualified teachers. In such a diverse cultural symbiotic educational atmosphere, these schools have brought up a group of unique talents" [19, p. 302].

Many outstanding painters have come out of these art schools, a considerable part of whom have dispersed all over the world: some of them have returned to their homeland, while others continue to create in other countries, becoming the best in this field. Many Chinese students have also been trained in these schools, but for various reasons less attention is paid to them and the works written by them, and relevant information and materials are rare. As for the status of popularizers of Western painting in Harbin, most of these Russian artists graduated from specialized art academies and had a good academic and pedagogical education. It can be argued that the artists-emigrants were influenced by the restless situation of that era: on the one hand, they inherited the traditions of Russian culture and art, on the other hand, living in a foreign land, they felt homesick, feeling like exiles. At the same time, from the point of view of psychological and living conditions, they considered Harbin their second hometown. To one degree or another, emigrant artists influenced the passion for art, including among the general public of that time, and had a direct impact on the development of art education in Harbin. It also formed the main picture of Harbin's urban culture and art and made Harbin a famous city of contemporary art, which in the 1920s-1930s was second only to Shanghai. At the same time, Shanghai also played a significant role in the development of Chinese art after the "May 4 Movement" and became an important place for the dissemination of Russian and Soviet contemporary art [20, p. 115].

Shanghai is also one of the important stages of the artistic activity of emigrant artists from Russia. From the October Revolution to the 1930s, among the Russian artists in Shanghai, first of all, I. L. Kalmykov, V. S. Podgursky, P. P. Gust and P. P. Balakshin should be mentioned.

I. L. Kalmykov was the first Russian artist to hold a solo exhibition in Shanghai. It happened when he stopped in Shanghai during his trip to India and Vietnam. The exhibition of works by I. L. Kalmykov was held in a luxurious Palace Hotel, which was located in an elite area of the city at the intersection of the Bund and Nanjing Street [11, p. 238]. This is how the Shanghai residents officially came into contact with Russian pictorial art for the first time [21, p. 81]. This exhibition instilled in the residents of Shanghai who moved from other countries, a love for Russian art. In the homeland of I. L. Kalmykov, almost no one is familiar with his work. However, the Russian artist and writer A. N. Benois attributed him to the particularly outstanding and skillful followers of I. I. Levitan [11, p. 238].

V. S. Podgursky studied in 1914-1918 at the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture at the Department of Painting in the workshops of professors A. E. Arkhipov and V. M. Vasnetsov. In 1918, he moved to Shanghai, where he spent some of his most creative years, and left behind many valuable works depicting Chinese traditions and customs. The theme of most of his paintings was the life of ordinary people and local landscapes. It should be noted that Podgursky was always looking for images that properly characterized the country in which he lived [22, p. 163].

During his stay in Shanghai, V. S. Podgursky specialized not only in painting, but also in teaching and devoted himself to this. He was offered a teaching position at the Shanghai Academy of Arts (now Nanjing University of Arts), founded by Liu Haixu, and he was engaged in teaching oil painting at the Western Painting department of the Institute, and also held many individual and joint art exhibitions. He studied with famous Chinese artists Ni Ide, Xu Xingzhi and Zhang Xian, as well as world-famous Russian artists I. A. Vulokh and T. P. Jaspar. V. S. Podgursky was also a member of the Shanghai International Art Club, where he taught painting and drawing. At the same time, he also collaborated with Shanghai architects: participated in the design and decoration of buildings such as Sassoon House, French Club, etc. [17, p. 59]. In 1926, his first solo exhibition took place, which was an extraordinary success, and many of the paintings exhibited by V. S. Podgursky were sold out. Thus began the era of Russian art exhibitions in Shanghai [11, p. 239]. Subsequently, V. S. Podgursky actively participated in group exhibitions, which attracted the attention of Shanghai residents to the works of Russian emigrants. In December 1928, together with M. A. Kichigin, N. A. Pikulevich and L. N. Pashkov, he held the first group exhibition of Russian emigrant artists in Shanghai. And the works of V. S. Podgursky turned out to be "the most amazing" and "the most striking" of all the works presented at previous art exhibitions [23, p. 661].

A. A. Efimov came to Harbin in the 1920s. When he moved to Beijing, he got permission to paint in the courtyard of the Forbidden City in Beijing. From December 8 to December 13, 1943, A. A. Efimov exhibited his watercolor and oil works reflecting the life of the old capital of China at the Shanghai Christian Union of Young People.

The artist P. P. Gust lived in Harbin and Qingdao. In 1927, he moved to Shanghai from Harbin. On July 19, 1929, when he was engaged in art, an accident happened to him: he died after falling off a cliff. After his death, more than 100 of his works remained [17, p. 60]. From December 21 to December 31, 1929, an exhibition dedicated to the work of P. P. Gust was held in Shanghai, where many of his works depicting China were presented. Joint art exhibition of M. F. Domrachev, V. A. Zasypkin, Ya. L. Likhonos, V. E. Kuznetsov, M. A. Kichigin, V. S. Podgursky and M. Ya. Shirovsky could be visited for free; it also featured paintings by P. P. Gust.

Shanghai has always been a center of interaction between Chinese and Russian artists. Traditionally, many Russian artists came to Shanghai to hold solo exhibitions, which included works depicting Chinese life. Judging by the presentation of Russian painting in China, the results of the Sino-Russian art exchange and dialogue not only broke down the artistic barriers between the Chinese and Western painting tradition, but also became a topic that countless scientists devoted themselves to research.

conclusion

In the first half of the XX century, China was strongly influenced by Russian emigrant artists. At the same time, against the background of the spread of Western education to the East, during the period of the Republic of China, the integration of the Western system of art education and art concepts into the Chinese education system began. The activity of Russian emigrant artists in China coincided with the movement for the development of Chinese painting in the western direction. On the one hand, Russian artists actively contributed to the development of this movement and strongly supported the innovative artistic activities of Chinese artists. On the other hand, due to the dominance of Soviet realistic art in the artistic landscape during the formation of China, Chinese artists began to study Russian art, translate and promote works related to it.

Compared to the political, economic and military spheres, art has an undeniably important uniqueness in the interaction between countries. The mass spread of Russian and Soviet art in China influenced traditional Chinese art and created new ground for it, gave a continuation and a new life to traditional painting, while ensuring its continuity and not hindering its development. To a certain extent, this influenced the artistic and aesthetic preferences of that time, including among the general public, and also directly affected the development of Chinese art education in the XX century. Russian Russian painting is still attractive due to the continuity of culture and art, the introduction and influence of Russian painting in China indirectly reflects the indirect path of development and changes in Chinese society related to art, starting with the formation of the People's Republic of China in the middle of the XX century and up to the present.

At the beginning of the XX century, due to the geographical location and political, social and cultural characteristics in Harbin and Shanghai, a significant effect of the cultural belt appeared in the process of art development. In a sense, the activities of Russian expatriate artists played a fundamental role in the formation and development of modern Chinese history, culture and art. Russian Russian expatriate artists were influenced by art exhibitions and art teaching in Harbin and Shanghai and have always served as an important base for the emergence of oil painting talents throughout China, as well as a cultural bastion for the constant exchange between Chinese and Russian artists and for the exchange of painting skills.

In the first half of the XX century, thanks to the diverse creative activities of Russian and Soviet emigrant artists in Harbin and Shanghai, these cities took a leading place in completing the process of urbanization from tradition to modernity. It also objectively contributed to the development of modern Chinese artistic civilization.

Understanding and studying the evolution of foreign art in China during the development of Harbin and Shanghai cannot but contribute to the development of art education in China today, and will also accurately position the development of regional art.

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First Peer Review

Peer reviewers' evaluations remain confidential and are not disclosed to the public. Only external reviews, authorized for publication by the article's author(s), are made public. Typically, these final reviews are conducted after the manuscript's revision. Adhering to our double-blind review policy, the reviewer's identity is kept confidential.
The list of publisher reviewers can be found here.

The subject of the research in the presented article ("Art exchanges and activities of Soviet artists in China during the period of the Republic of China (1912-1949)") is most likely the creative activity of Russian and Soviet artists in the historical period indicated in the title of the article. As follows from the title, the author does not distinguish between Russian and Soviet artists, since he estimates their combined influence on the spread of European painting in China. Despite the fact that this approach is quite justified, the title should nevertheless take into account that the Russian art school became Soviet only by the end of the 1920s, i.e. speaking about the historical period of 1912-1949, it is more appropriate to use the term "Russian-Soviet artists". In addition, the subject of the study is expressed ambiguously in the title of the article: on the one hand, "art exchanges", on the other, "the activities of ... artists", which does not correspond to the content of the article, where the reader's attention is more focused on the influence of the creative activities of Russian and Soviet artists on the spread of European painting in China. Moreover, various aspects of this activity are considered: diplomatic, educational, artistic, exhibition, pedagogical, journalistic. And "art exchanges", which involve international exchanges of the results of artistic creativity, are touched upon superficially in the article and are not the subject of research. Thus, the title of the article does not reflect its theoretical content and needs to be adjusted. This disadvantage refers to significant theoretical flaws and indicates the need for serious revision of the article. The second significant theoretical disadvantage is the unclear research program. Despite the fact that the author has covered the subject of the study in sufficient detail, it is not clear what is the scientific problem to which the author contributes? In some cases, academic articles may not contain a formal section devoted to substantiating the relevance of a scientific problem, the goals and objectives of the study, and the methods used in solving problems. To do this, it is necessary that the listed formal methodological support of the publication, which makes up the research program, be transparently reflected in the structure of the article, in the logic of the presentation of the research results. But the reviewed article is not framed in this way: the author immediately proceeds to a consistent presentation of individual historical facts, which together reveal the influence of the activities of Russian-Soviet artists on the spread of European painting in China in the 1912-1949's. The author's final conclusion looks quite appropriate and logically follows from the analyzed and generalized epistolary sources, and one can even assume a sufficient degree of scientific novelty of the presented work due to the author's selection of special literature. But in the conclusion, again, there is no assessment of the research problem solved, since this task was not formulated in the introduction. Therefore, it has to be stated that the subject of the study is not sufficiently disclosed. The article needs methodological revision. The research methodology, as noted above, is not the strong point of the work submitted for review. The author needs to briefly outline the essence of the scientific problem in the introduction, the degree of its development in science and the program for its solution, and finally assess the result achieved during the research. The author did not consider it necessary to justify the relevance of the chosen topic, obviously assuming that the topic of Russian-Soviet influence on Chinese culture is self-evident due to the recently intensified integration processes between the cultures of the two countries. However, due to its relevance, the topic is being developed by many researchers, so the author needs to indicate to the reader exactly what distinguishes his work: does it bring new knowledge to the established direction of systematic research or reveals new prospects for further work? The scientific novelty of the article, due to the theoretical shortcomings mentioned above, remains in doubt, although it is possible to see an element of novelty in the generalization of the special literature chosen by the author. The style of the article, although it strives for a scientific one, is replete with errors in the coordination of words in sentences (for example, "... they were accompanied by a professional artist who went ...", "The methods of expression and style of the artists of the Russian Ecclesiastical Mission differed significantly ...", "Most artists also participated ...", etc.). Probably, the author is experiencing difficulties in literary (written) Russian, then it is necessary to offer a theoretically verified work to be literarily edited by a native speaker with sufficient competence. The structure of the article also needs to be improved: a clear distinction between the introduction, the main part and the conclusion must be consolidated by the general logic of the presentation of the research results. The bibliography as a whole reflects the problematic field of research and meets the editorial requirements for the design. The appeal to the opponents is quite correct and sufficient. The article may be of interest to the readership of the journal "Man and Culture", but it needs significant revision taking into account the comments of the reviewer.

Second Peer Review

Peer reviewers' evaluations remain confidential and are not disclosed to the public. Only external reviews, authorized for publication by the article's author(s), are made public. Typically, these final reviews are conducted after the manuscript's revision. Adhering to our double-blind review policy, the reviewer's identity is kept confidential.
The list of publisher reviewers can be found here.

The author presented his article "Artistic activity of Russian-Soviet artists in Harbin and Shanghai China during the period of the Republic of China (1912-1949)" to the magazine "Man and Culture", which conducted a study of the creative contribution of Russian artists to the development of artistic culture in China in the first half of the twentieth century. The author proceeds from the study of this issue from the fact that during the years of the existence of the Republic of China, the new cultural policy of the government, which can be described as "the spread of Western education to the East", contributed to the process of modernization of China and the preservation of Chinese traditional culture and art. At this time, Western ideas and concepts, including Russian and Soviet ones, penetrated into China, under the influence of which serious changes took place in the field of politics, economics, culture and art. As the author notes, despite the influence of Western European philosophical and cultural ideas on the life of Chinese society due to political and geographical reasons, the most serious and profound influence on Chinese culture and art during the period of the Republic of China was exerted by Russian and Soviet art, in particular realistic painting. The relevance of the research is determined by the increasing scale of close cultural contacts developing between Russia and China, including in the artistic sphere. The methodological basis was formed by an integrated approach, including general scientific methods of analysis and synthesis, as well as descriptive, historical and cultural, biographical and cultural analysis. The theoretical basis of the research is the works of such Russian and Chinese art historians as Shi Fan, Wang Zhicheng, Michael Sullivan, Chen Wenhua, A.A. Khisamutdinov, V.G. Sharonov, etc. The empirical base consists of memoirs, memoirs and archival materials on the subject under study. Russian Russian and Soviet artists The purpose of the work is to analyze the various types of artistic activities that were carried out by Russian and Soviet artists in China, as well as the influence that Russian and Soviet artists had on the formation of Chinese art in the Chinese cities of Harbin and Shanghai. The author notes the following activities for acquaintance with the artistic work of Russian and Soviet painters: exhibitions held in China, teaching at art academies in China, as well as the creation of various art studios. Having studied the degree of scientific elaboration of the problem, the author notes a sufficient number of studies that reveal the importance and complexity of the studied problem and gradually give a clearer picture of the rise and decline of Chinese painting from tradition to modernity. The study of regional and local art history allowed the author to look at the development and evolution of modern Chinese art from different points of view. However, the author notes the insufficient degree of elaboration of the problem and the lack of research results on the history of Chinese art of the period of the Republic of China. The work in this direction constituted the scientific novelty of the study. The author has studied in detail and described the stages of artistic interaction between China and Russia since the signing of the Treaty of Kyakhta between the Qing government and the Russian Empire in 1727. The author pays special attention to the changes in the art world that occurred after the October Revolution of 1917. He noted individual groups of artists, including A.E. Stepanov, A.N. Klementyev, M.M. Lobanov, who moved to Harbin, Shanghai, Beijing and other cities of China. They opened workshops, held art exhibitions, taught art and artistic creativity, created art galleries, carried out international art exchange and distributed Russian art in China. On September 22, 1922, with the direct participation and support of representatives of all sectors of society in China and Russia, the Society for the Study of the Manchurian Region (OIMC, now the Society for the Study of Cultural Development of the Special Area of the Eastern Provinces — ORVP) was established. In the late 1920s, Harbin Art College was established. Shanghai, according to the author, has always been a center of interaction between Chinese and Russian artists. Traditionally, many Russian artists came to Shanghai to hold solo exhibitions, which included works depicting Chinese life. Exploring the activities of Russian artists in Shanghai from the October Revolution to the 1930s, the author especially notes the work of I.L. Kalmykov, V.S. Podgursky, P.P. Gust and P.P. Balakshin. It seems that the author in his material touched upon relevant and interesting issues for modern socio-humanitarian knowledge, choosing a topic for analysis, consideration of which in scientific research discourse will entail certain changes in the established approaches and directions of analysis of the problem addressed in the presented article. The results obtained allow us to assert that the study of the interaction of different cultures due to intercultural interaction and the facts of the manifestation of such interaction is of undoubted theoretical and practical cultural interest and can serve as a source of further research. The material presented in the work has a clear, logically structured structure that contributes to a more complete assimilation of the material. An adequate choice of methodological base also contributes to this. The bibliographic list of the study consists of 23 sources, including foreign ones, which seems sufficient for generalization and analysis of scientific discourse on the studied problem. The author fulfilled his goal, received certain scientific results that allowed him to summarize the material. It should be noted that the article may be of interest to readers and deserves to be published in a reputable scientific publication.
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