The problem of preservation of the Russian ethnic minority identity in China

This article discusses the problem of Russian minority identity preservation in China. Russian diaspora abroad is one of the largest in the contemporary world, and the number of Russian living in China has been steadily increasing. In the era of globalization, with intense migration processes and activation of cultural and information exchange over political boundaries, the issue of diasporas is becoming more topical and public shows greater interest in the problems of national minorities and immigrants. Due to the development of relations between Russia and China over the past decade, Russian settlement in China is also actively expanding, so the problem of studying the Russian diaspora is becoming increasingly urgent. The main content of the study is an analysis of the formation of the Russian diaspora in China since the end of the 19th century, its transformation and current situation. The article examines the key stages of the diaspora's formation: the pre-revolutionary period, period of the revolution, the emigration of the Second World War, postwar emigration and post-Soviet emigration which arose after the opening of the borders and has a diverse nature. In the study of Russian emigration in China, it is first necessary to consider the first wave of emigration in the late 19th -early 20th centuries, which starts the formation of a full-fledged Russian diaspora in China. The next important period is the post-war and post-Soviet emigration, when there is a division of the Russian diaspora in China: the first part is a modern diaspora, Russians who have not mixed with the local population, who arrived in China in the post-Soviet period and today they are the main translators of Russian culture in China. The second part of Russian nationals is a Chinese ethnic minority which is recognized officially as a national minority among the 56 nationalities. In fact, today they are Russian families which assimilated with the local population, descendants of marriages of Russians and the Chinese. For several years they remained in China without contact with their historical homeland because of the political climate between the USSR and China, thus, they became even more alienated from their historical roots. As a result, today the so-called "historical" Russian diaspora has no sufficient forces to maintain their identity. The author gives some general characteristics of the Russian ethnic minority in China, and emphasizes two main problems: preservation of the language and preservation of the Orthodox faith. Based on the analysis the author proposes some solutions to the problem of the loss of the identity of the Russian ethnic minority in China.

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