Pancakes and dancing: how Russia and China are trying to take cultural ties to new heights

Leaders Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin have agreed that 2024 and 2025 are to be Years of Culture

Exchanges between people are ‘as important’ as political relations between countries, analyst says

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Partly to break out of isolation from the West, Russian leader Vladimir Putin is now looking to boost cultural exchanges with China. Illustration: Henry Wong

Published: 6:00am, 21 Apr 2024Updated: 4:29pm, 22 Apr 2024

On a windy afternoon in March, as the election was under way in Russia, a crowd of mostly young Chinese celebrated the end of winter in Beijing – Russian-style.

Alongside Russians in traditional costume, they danced and ate pancakes to mark Maslenitsa, an Eastern Slavic folk holiday.

They did so in a Soviet-style exhibition centre from the 1950s – built after a visit by Nikita Khrushchev, the former Soviet leader.

The event was held in the Soviet-style Beijing Exhibition Centre, built in 1954. Photo: Laura Zhou

Logistics management student Calvin Yan, 21, was among those embracing the festival.

He said he became interested in Russian culture as a 15-year-old after seeing The Dawns Here Are Quiet, a film based on Boris Vasilyev’s novel about a group of women soldiers in World War II.

“I was immediately attracted by the song ‘Katyusha’ and the sense of strength it delivered,” Yan said. “The more I learn about Russia, the more I can feel the strength – from its history to its literature to its music.”

More than 1,000 locals attended the Maslenitsa celebration, organised by the semi-official Russian-Chinese Committee for Friendship, Peace and Development.

Cultural exchanges such as these could become more regular in the coming months as the two neighbouring countries mark 75 years of diplomatic relations. Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin have agreed that 2024 and 2025 are to be Years of Culture – part of efforts by Beijing and Moscow to move closer amid growing pressure from the West.