History of Chinese writing and its significance for China's contemporary language policy discussed at Inostranka

The Library for Foreign Literature hosted a lecture titled "A Journey into China's Past: The Hidden Stories Behind China's History and Script," organised by the BRICS Expert Council-Russia in partnership with the BRICS+ Information and Cultural Media Centre. The event was held as part of the annual Chinese Mosaic Festival and a broader educational series focused on the BRICS countries.

The speaker was Maria Efimenko, Lecturer of the School of Asian Studies at HSE University and Academic Director of the HSE Chinese Club. In her lecture, she highlighted that the evolution of Chinese writing represents a continuous thread across the millennia—from the first sacred symbols of the Neolithic period to today's simplified characters.

Special focus was given to the Shang (Yin) dynasty, which provided scholars with deciphered inscriptions on oracle bones and shells. These texts followed a binary structure: questions were posed in both affirmative and negative forms so that the divine response could be interpreted from cracks as "yes" or "no." The subsequent historical layer consists of inscriptions on Western Zhou bronze vessels, where texts became formalised "documents" for ancestor veneration, recording dates, circumstances, appointments, and lists of gifts, reflecting early elements of state bureaucracy.

In closing, Maria Efimenko emphasised that the Chinese writing tradition has profoundly influenced the linguistic cultures of Japan, Korea, and Vietnam, where characters were adapted to reflect their own native languages. This experience, she suggested, holds particular relevance for comparative studies and cross-cultural projects within the #BRICS framework.

📎 More information about this event can be found on the official website of the BRICS Expert Council-Russia

#BRICSExpertCouncil #BRICSExpertCouncilRussia #EXPERT #China #inostranka

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