Shunned in the West, Russian performers turn to China as Beijing and Moscow boost cultural ties
- The Bolshoi ballet, soprano Anna Netrebko and conductor Valery Gergiev among those taking the stage in China after facing sanctions in US and Europe
- Experts say Moscow and Beijing are promoting culture to support each other and grow soft power in the face of geopolitical pressure
The concert series, which concluded on March 29, was the first international performance by the prominent conductor since his termination soon after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine last year.
The Chinese embassy in Russia, in an article published soon after President Xi Jinping’s visit to Moscow in March, said that the two countries intended to arrange more trips and performances and host events together.
The two sides said they opposed “the politicisation of international cooperation in the humanities”, and that any discrimination against professionals in the cultural industries was because of “political reasons”.
In Beijing, Gergiev said he was “privileged, happy and honoured” to return to the stage in China, Global Times reported.
“It is like coming home,” he was quoted as saying. He also said that being against Russian music was just as “stupid as any Russian standing against Bach and Mozart”, the report said.
Zhang Xin, an associate professor of international relations at Shanghai’s East China Normal University, said cultural exchanges remained a part of the diplomatic agenda for China and Russia.
“It is also quite certain that China will not invite artists who take a stand against the war or performances with anti-war themes,” Zhang said.
Zhang added that the two countries were seeking mutual support and coordination in terms of both hard and soft power.
Before his visit to Moscow, Xi wrote in an article for the Russian Gazette and the state-run RIA Novosti news agency that the two countries must “step up people-to-people and cultural exchanges” and pave the way for more interactions between sister cities, provinces and states.
The Chinese embassy in Moscow has announced a series of cultural events scheduled for this year, including a Chinese culture festival to be held in Russia featuring Chinese performance groups.
Last week, Renmin University of China’s Chongyang Institute for Financial Studies hosted a book talk featuring Russian economist Sergey Bodrunov. The event was also attended by a Russian scholar and a Russian official.
The Shanghai Oriental Art Centre will welcome the Chelyabinsk State Academic Opera and Ballet Theatre, which is expected to perform two ballet productions, Swan Lake and Anna Karenina, in early June.
Also in June, the St Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra will perform with conductor Nikolay Alexeev and Russian pianist Daniel Kharitonov in five Chinese cities: Beijing, Tianjin, Wuhan, Changsha and Shanghai.
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Anna Kireeva, associate professor at Moscow State Institute of International Relations, noted that the two countries used to have “very robust people-to-people exchanges and cultural ties”, but everything was disrupted because of the pandemic.
Kireeva said many Russian performers were unable to maintain the same level of international ties with the West, so non-Western countries were likely to be a more frequent destination for tours than before.
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Pang Changwei, professor at the China University of Petroleum, said the Ukraine war created a huge gap between Russia and Western countries, with Russian culture treated as an “abandoned child”.
“Russia is turning to Asia for trade and international cooperation, and especially to China, and the literary and artistic exchanges are aimed at deepening the civil base of strategic cooperation between the two countries,” he said.
“Russian culture is part of human civilisation, and putting sanctions on the entire Russian culture is not a wise move,” said Pang, who is also a foreign academician of the Russian Academy of Natural Sciences.
“Sanctions against the government and officials should not affect or hinder the exchanges of culture.”