Articles

Russian-Chinese school of commercial knowledge in Hankou (1907–1911)

Vostok/Oriens '2017, №6

DOI: 10.7868/S0869190817060012

 
At the beginning of the twentieth century the Russian authorities intensified the propaganda of the Russian language teaching in the Qing Empire to form the stratum of people loyal to our state. During the inspection of the Chinese Russian language Schools which was organized in 1907–1908 by the Russian minister Dmitry D. Pokotilov to Peking, the sides reached an agreement to establish Russian-Chinese school of commercial knowledge in the most economically favorable region of Central China, Hankou. In this school, Chinese students studied Russian and some trade and economics disciplines. It was completely Russian school managed and financed exclusively by the Russian government. Locals expressed a big interest in studying at this school as it guarantied quite good perspectives to get a job in the commercial field, especially in the Russian-Chinese tea trade which was booming in that time. However, the fate of the school turned tragic. As a result of the revolutionary incident in the Qing Empire in 1911–1912, the school was closed without leaving its first students a chance to graduate. This minimized the school’s contribution into developing Russian language study in China.

Keywords: Russian language teaching in China, humanitarian ties, Russian language school in Hankou, Russian-Chinese tea trade

Pages: С. 6–17