Content area
Full text
Abstract
This article presents personal accounts by Russian sinologists about their professional work abroad and exchanges with foreign colleagues during the Soviet period (1917-1991). Divided, isolated, oppressed, discriminated, limited, and confined to their country for many decades, Russian sinologists still managed to maintain contacts with their colleagues in China, the "socialist camp," and the global sinology community. Sinologists in the USSR had to implement various methods to penetrate the political and ideological "Iron Veil," to promote their studies abroad, and to participate in international cooperation on China studies. This study utilizes data obtained from nearly 40 interviews conducted in Russia as part of "The Epistemology of China Studies: Oral History Project" from 2009 to 2014. Its purpose is to demonstrate the uniqueness of professional interviews as a potentially rich source and foundation for further academic explorations of oral history on China studies.
Lift not the painted veil which those who live call life....
Percy Shelley, 1818
Russian sinologists were restricted in many ways and to a great extent were limited from engaging in professional exchanges with their colleagues in China and other countries during the entire Soviet period (1917-91). Such restrictions resulted in Russian sinologists being divided, isolated, oppressed, discriminated, limited, and confined to their country for many decades. Nevertheless, Russian sinologists still managed to maintain contacts with their colleagues from the "socialist camp" and the global sinology community. There were at least three "outer sinology worlds" existing beyond the domestic world of Soviet sinology and USSR borders, including China, the "socialist camp countries," and the countries of the "capitalist world."
This study utilizes data obtained from interviews conducted in Russia as part of "The Epistemology of China Studies: Oral History Project" (CS-OHP), initiated by Professor Chih-yu Shih at National Taiwan University in 2007. As of the present, more than 20 countries and territories have participated in this project. The collected interviews are published online, in academic periodicals, and in printed volumes. A total of 40 interviews with elderly and middle-aged Russian sinologists were recorded by the author and his colleague between 2009 and 2013. All interviewees were born during the Soviet period (between 1918 and 1953). In particular, 28 (70 percent) of the subjects were born in 1918 and during the 1920s and...