Summary of the 10th Conference 'Russia-China: History and Culture'

The conference was closed on October 7th.

200 attendants put forth some proposals considering future joint projects. KFU and Institute of Oriental Manuscripts agreed to create a virtual department of Oriental manuscripts. Both institutions will submit their relevant storage units to an online platform for studies.

KFU's work on Russian corridors of the Silk Road was also commended.

Significant interest was drawn to a panel on methods of Chinese language learning. The participants said that experts in Chinese language and culture are still in high demand, and cooperation with the interested parties must be widened. In particular, Higher School of Translation of Moscow State University presented its new textbooks with lexical and grammar exercises and audio materials. The textbook takes account of some very recent events, such as the 2017 Confederations Cup. The audio part was recorded by native speakers of various age groups, including children. As was mentioned, the textbooks will now be used at KFU as well.

Moscow State Linguistic University talked about its recent innovation in language studies – it now includes annotation writing for scientific papers in Chinese. In particular, this applies to the students’ own qualification theses. This practice will also be introduced at Kazan University soon.

Online courses for learners of Chinese are a very pertinent problem. Partnerships with MSU and SPbSU are being discussed, and we may soon witness first steps in such collaborations.