Lecture course ‘Chinese migrants in Russia’

On October 19–22, a lecture course themed ‘Chinese migrants in Russia at the turn of the 19th to the 20th and the 20th to the 21st centuries’ was given by Victor Dyatlov, Doctor of History, Professor of Department of World History and International Relations (Irkutsk State University) at the TSU Laboratory for Social and Anthropological Research.

On the one hand, this series of lectures is designed to familiarize students with the history of the Chinese migration to Russia. Of particular interest here is the fact that there were two ‘waves’ of Chinese migrants coming to Russia before and after the Soviet period. During that period Chinese migrants totally disappeared both from the life of the Russian society and its historical memory. On the other, the task was set, based on this historical and contemporary material, to analyze processes of adaptation of migrants, the formation and development of their social and business practices, diasporalization trends and the formation of ethnic enclaves. Also studied in the lectures were the mechanisms and ways of elaborating and implementing state immigration policy along with the variety of reactions of the host society to the presence of Chinese migrants – from security concerns to development prospects – as well as the stereotypes in regulating the mutual relationships and the dynamics of ‘Chinophobia’ development – from the syndrome of ‘yellow peril’ in the late Imperial Russia to the ‘Chinese threat’ at present.

Themes of lectures:

Pioneers of cross-border labour migrations: the Chinese in the late Imperial Russia.
Modern Russia: the ‘second coming’ of Chinese migrants.
‘Chinese markets’ and the issue of Chinatowns. The problem of Chinese diaspora.
Between security and development: host society’s attitudes.
Chinophobia: from the ‘yellow peril’ to the ‘Chinese threat’.