The St Petersburg Confucius Institute is one of the Chinese cultural and educational centers overseen by the Office of Chinese Language Council International. At the moment there are 322 Confucius Institutes and 369 Confucius Classes in 96 countries of the world. CI at St Petersburg University was founded in 2007 and, in 2010, awarded with the honorary title of “Advanced Confucius Institute” for the translations and popularization of Chinese literature.

During 2010/11 only, the fellows of the Institute edited a number of important publications such as the special issue of The Bulletin of St Petersburg devoted to the Year of the Chinese Language in Russia; the reprint edition of The Graphic System of Chinese Characters. A First Attempt at Compiling of the Russian Chinese Dictionary [Графическая система китайских иероглифов. Опыт первого китайско-русского словаря] by Prof V.P. Wassiliev (1867); the reprint edition of Chinese Russian Dictionary by Archimandrite P.S. Popova (1888-89); translation of the 21st century Chinese short stories, The Forty Third Page [Сорок третья страница]; translation of ten books from the China and World series by order of China Intercontinental Publishers, etc. For several years, the Institute has edited the Russian version of the Confucius Institute Journal. The St Petersburg CI takes part in the organization of academic conferences such as History and Historiography of the Countries of Asia and Africa [История и историография стран Азии и Африки] and Issues of Literature of the Far East [Проблемы литератур Дальнего Востока].

Speaking about the plans of the CI, Dr A. Rodionov announced the project of compilation of the annotated catalogue of the Acad. V.P. Wassiliev’s collection of Chinese block prints and new edition of his Account of the History of Chinese Literature [Очерк истории китайской литературы] (1880) supplied with its Chinese translation.

The seminar was attended by the Director of CI at St Petersburg State University, Mrs Cui Guoxin, students of the University, the IOM’s researchers. The presentation by Dr A. Rodionov was accepted with great interest and it was followed with a discussion on perspectives of cooperation between the CI and the IOM RAS.

PHOTOS

Dr A. Rodionov submits his presentation at the Far Eastern Studies Seminar

The Director of the Confucius Institute at St Petersburg State University, Mrs Cui Goux, and the Deputy Director of the CI, Dr A. Rodionov, at the Museum of Oriental Studies of the IOM RAS