You also mentioned climate, right？You said. Because Russia is very cold and throughout most part of the year, so people do drink sometimes just like to warm themselves up.

Yeah.

This is a question. In China, I've seen in your videos on Bilibili as well that you mentioned the idea of 戰(zhàn)斗民族. You know that many Chinese they like to joke about it. They say Russians they are so tough.

I think this whole idea is not saying Russians are aggressive, it’s more like that you guys are very tough because you can cope with the harsh climate. I've never even been to東北in China. I don't think I ever really experienced extremely cold weather. How cold is the coldest place in Russia? How do people cope with that level of climate, especially in winter? Any fun things that you can share?

Yeah, just now you just mentioned that you have never been to the Northern part of China, right? I must say the mentality and the lifestyle is kind of similar with Russian people because I've been living in there for 1 year like when I just came to China, I've been living there for 1 year. And I must say even in some sort of ways, I thought they are more tough even than Russian people.

After that I must say because of the climate it's also affected on our mentality. It's like surviving you need to survive through the winter. Even there is one saying in Russia that before like in old times people are saying, okay, if they were planning something on next year, like after a couple of years, they will say, okay, let's live this winter and after we'll see.

So there were situations in my country where some people they couldn't survive winter because they didn't have enough groceries or like some food or anything. It also kind of affect on mentality. So that's why most Russian people, maybe we look aggressive or cold, but actually it's not the only thing we have, we also can be very happy and we have great things, we also…

Very passionate as well.

Yeah, it's not only like passionate. It's also like if we meet new people, we are making friends, we are also very kind to them. We never like, okay, I don't know you, so I will not talk to you or something like that.

It's a stereotype about Russian people, but that's why maybe the way I'm making videos on my channel and trying to go through that comparison between Russian and Chinese culture. I want to tell people that actually Russian people is not the way you thought.

Yeah, that's also why we're doing this particular episode, this particular talk.

Actually, I think for many Chinese, their understanding of Russian, especially if you talking about what they’ve learnt from books, from some especially masterpieces, I think I grew up reading some Russian novels, some of the greatest writers, and Russia is well known for many art forms like ballet, literature, and you yourself are a poet.

I would like to ask that what about nowadays, the young people in Russia, are they still interested in these considered very highbrow, 比較高大上的這種art forms, or are they like youngsters everywhere else just more into 抖音 and all that？

I must say that there are still people really interested in highbrow art but as for me, I'm kind of like personally from my opinion, I'm kind of half of that and this, between a new generation and old generation.

Because when I was born in 1995 and that time, Russia had a lot of changes in policy, environment and that was really different lifestyles. So it's also kind of affects the generation of that time.

As for me I love literature also because of my father because he likes to read a lot and he sometimes also write poems like for himself, it's not like he's a famous poet or like he's sharing his poems everywhere, but from the childhood, he was trying to teach me that I have to read more. I have to learn a lot of things because it's not just like for showing off or like showing that you are smart. It's just for your own intelligence like for your own satisfaction, because in this world. We also like have物質(zhì)和非物質(zhì)的價值觀對吧？

The more spiritual side.

You have to have a spiritual side in your life, except like money, like something material stuff. In comparing nowadays Russia with for example China, I think the lifestyle of young people is kind of similar like we also use Tik Tok. We also like going to have some fun, like there are not too much people really interested in literature or traditional art. But there are still people who likes to read so it doesn't matter what you're reading, but still Russian people they like to read stuff like different books, even young people.

Definitely.

I think it's a great thing because if you are not reading, it also affects you when you like being in a society, for example, you can make more friends because when you're reading or you are trying to learn a lot of things by yourself, you automatically I think you're becoming an interesting person that people would like to talk to you, right, discuss different things? But if you don't have anything to talk, so I think it is a problem as well.

It's also a way to form your own world in your own perspective. I especially love that part that you said how reading is not just to show off, it’s not just to show how well-read you are or how learned you are. It’s more for your own satisfaction. By the way, I was wondering since you’ve been writing poetry, poems, are you writing in Chinese or Russian or English?

Usually I'm practicing to write them in all these three languages like English, Russian and Chinese because it depends also on the mood like sometimes people ask me like, how can you today you're writing in Chinese, tomorrow you are writing in Russian, the day after tomorrow like I don't know another day in English; and I'm like I don't know, it's something about the mood and also about the topic, because I believe that poetry, poetry is the most difficult thing that you can translate to other languages. It's because you have to understand the culture of its language, the history, the culture of the language.

For example, in my country, we love to use like different sort of expression for example, love poems, like you're writing to someone or you're expressing your love for someone. We are used to do it in a very straightforward way and very passionate. But in China it's different. If you wanna say that you love someone, you use different metaphors like you like comparing love to the moon or something else.

We’re more含蓄 in a way.

Yeah, and it's very different. Sometimes I'm also doing some translations even of my own poems just for practicing, I found that there are a lot of expression that you cannot translate. You can’t do that. You have to actually to take that like in Chinese 意境, right?

Even the word 意境 is difficult to translate.

Yeah, I would say like main idea, you need to take out the main idea of the poem and make another poem in another language from the beginning, you cannot translate. Because I'm also writing poems in Chinese as well and I wouldn't say it's very perfect because I still try to learn more about Chinese culture and Chinese mentality. And maybe sometimes I use expressions that Chinese people wouldn't use in their writing. It's like it's very different. But also I think it's a good thing.

That's the uniqueness.

Because I'm mixing two cultures like Russian and... Yeah, it's a unique thing.

As we're coming to the end of our discussion, I just would like to ask you one more thing. I'm assuming you gave yourself this Chinese name, right? This 唐曦蘭

It's actually one of my Chinese teacher gave me this name because when I was studying my bachelor, it's like a few years ago, right? I think I was a second -year student because my bachelor major is Chinese language and literature.

So basically I learned about Chinese literature and yeah I love it. So that time I started to write Chinese poems when I was in the second year of bachelor and because I cannot use my Russian name everywhere. It's too long and it's hard to remember for people. They don't know what's the name or like for example, if they want to search my poem or something, they will never find it because my name is too long.

That’s very long.

If you will pronounce it in Chinese, it's gonna be like巴達(dá)列娃·阿娜斯塔西亞, in English is like Podareva Anastasia. And then I had this teacher, he taught us ancient literature like Chinese ancient literature like古詩詞, 宋詞, 唐詩 this kind of thing.

And then one day I just like I came to him, I was asking like teacher, I wanted to ask you, can you help me please choose some Chinese names like that describe my character and because I'm writing poems and I want to use it as a writer name.

He didn't give me the name directly. He said like OK. Go and read The Book of Songs. 詩經(jīng) and then I said okay, so how do I search？And he said there are some words and names and they're like in poems that describes like the girl's names, like 曦蘭，晨曦的一朵蘭花or something like that. So I was searching and I found a few things and then I think like曦蘭.

It is a beautiful name, definitely.

Yeah, I liked it so much and then I sent it to the teacher. I said, okay I’m choosing this one. He just helped me to put 唐, the Surname together with it and then he said like 唐曦蘭and then I said what does it mean because I couldn’t still get the meaning of the name and he said like大唐，晨曦中的一朵蘭花and I'm like WOW.

That意境is so beautiful.

It's so poetic the main idea there. It’s all nice.

So 曦蘭, it’s been lovely talking to you. Hopefully in the future we might invite you to the studio again. Thank you also so much for clearing up some of these stereotypes, most of them wrong about Russians.

Yeah, thank you that you give me an opportunity to share my ideas with everyone.

All right. And then for those of you who are listening to the show, if you guys have been to Russia, or if you had interactions with people from Russia, if you have anything to share, please share your comments in the comment section. Thank you, 曦蘭. Thank you for coming to the studio.

Thank you, everyone.

Thank you, bye.

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