Russia promotes Chinese education, but it is not really teaching, but it is mandatory to "call" students to learn Chinese, causing social tears.
Putin said in the first lesson of the school that he would increase Chinese education, and some people believe that this is because Russia is gradually moving away from the West and moving closer to China. But if someone thinks that Russia wants to become a vassal of China by promoting Chinese, then this person is either ignorant or naïve.
I recently returned from the Russian Far East, which we often call the "Outer Northeast", and I have seen and experienced it with my own eyes, and I am deeply impressed by what I have seen and experienced firsthand: Chinese education in Russia is not for learning, but for command.
Even in the Outer Northeast, where Chinese is most widely spoken, Russians who can speak Chinese are very rare, and their Chinese is limited to commonly spoken words such as "hello" and "goodbye."
Although Chinese education is very popular in Northeast China, it is not actually taught. This is mainly due to the economic budget and the staffing problem, but fundamentally, it is also a geopolitical consideration.
Boyan has always maintained the old tradition, that is, to learn from the past. To understand why the Russian Far East talks about Chinese education, but does not do much Chinese education in practice, it is necessary to understand the historical ties and bonds between this land and the Chinese.
Chinese is not only a tool for communication, but also a symbol of blood identity. During the Soviet era, the indigenous peoples of the Outer Northeast, such as the Nanai and Evenki, called on the Soviet Union to introduce Chinese courses.
They did not learn Chinese out of nostalgia for the Qing Dynasty and did not know much about Chinese history and culture. Their main purpose in learning Chinese is to be able to interact with China's border people.
Back 100 years ago, during the Qing Dynasty, these indigenous peoples had already begun to trade with China's border people. Now, in the Khabarovsk Museum of Geographery, we can also see the Chinese jade and Guangxu copper coins that the aborigines exchanged for bear skins at that time.
The aborigines' perception of the Qing Dynasty is just an imagination, and I saw an imaginary Manchu flag of the Double Dragon playing with pearls drawn by an aboriginal child in the museum, and you know, they have never seen the real Yellow Dragon Banner.
Despite this, they still consider themselves subjects of the Qing Dynasty, why is that?Because of the identity of the bloodline. Ethnically, the aborigines are of the yellow race and share a common ancestor with the Manchus - the Jurchens.
Although the concept of "Yellow Russia" once existed in Russian history, ethnically they identified with the Jurchens and Asians. During World War II, when militaristic Japan invaded the Outer Northeast, there were also indigenous peoples who mistakenly believed that it was the return of the Qing Dynasty and therefore supported Asian empires against European empires.
Although this history has been sealed in the dust, it is still a hidden pain in the history of Russia. They recognize that blood identity cannot be changed, so they need to sever their blood ties to Asian culture in terms of cultural identity in order to achieve a true racial identity.
Language is not only a communication tool, but also a cultural symbol. Mastering a language is equivalent to having a cultural identity. During the Soviet era, in order to unify the languages of the various ethnic minorities, all languages were changed to the Cyrillic alphabet.
Even today, the Cyrillic alphabet is still used in Outer Mongolia, while the Uighur alphabet is no longer used. However, in recent years Outer Mongolia is rumored to be working to restore the Uighur alphabet in order to achieve the goal of de-Russification.
For the yellow people of the Outer Northeast, it is unrealistic to make them identify themselves as Slavs by blood, therefore, it is necessary to make them linguistically identify themselves as Russian culture.
During Stalin's rule, there was a large-scale purge of the culture of the indigenous peoples of the Outer Northeast, and it can be said that the Jurchen-speaking aborigines almost disappeared without a trace.
Interestingly, this gave the indigenous people a simple understanding: Chinese is Manchurian, the language of their ancestors. Friends who know a little about the history of the Manchu Qing Dynasty know that Manchu and Chinese are very different, and Jurchen and Chinese cannot be beaten.
However, the Soviet Union, through de-sinicization of history education, created a gap in the national history of the aborigines, and they equated the Manchus with China. So, will Russia vigorously promote Chinese education to the Outer Northeast?
If the yellow minority speaks Chinese, will their cultural identity with Russia loosen somewhat?
Chinese education, "called" is Sino-Russian friendship, but teaching, but not teaching, this is a geopolitical reality.