Проблемы литератур Дальнего Востока

2. New Tasks in the Study of Classical Chinese Literature in the Age of Globalization and Informatization Issues of Far Eastern Literatures: Materials of the 11th International Scientific Cconference. June 27–29, 2024 38 Keywords: Biddhist literature, translation, classical chinese poetry. Zavidovskaya Ekaterina (Institute of China and Contemporary Asia RAS, Bryansk State University), katushaza@yahoo.com Drama and Storytelling Genres of Early XX Century Shanghai and Suzhou on Popular Prints Collected by Russian Sinologist V. M. Alekseev (1881–1951). During his travel in the Yangtze river region in January, 1909 Russian sinologist V. M. Alekseev acquired in Hankou, Suzhou and Shanghai approx. 200 sheets of popular prints with images of popular gods, beauties, scenes of drama, storytelling performances and street circus. They were produced by lithographic method and may be attributed to the early XX century Shanghai school of popular prints xiaojiaochang 小校場 , which originated from Taohuawu 桃花塢 close to Suzhou. This scope of prints is now housed at the State Hermitage Museum (St.-Petersburg). Since a large portion of prints represent scenes of traditional drama and other kinds of performance they provide important visual material on popular culture of late imperial China. Close study of these prints allows delineating the most popular operas (The Three KingdomRomance, Travel to the West, Tang Dynasty Tale, Yang Family Tale etc.), storytelling genres and pieces, circumstances of their performing, such as theaters, tea houses or private parlors. The prints shed light on local Wu language literary scenery and emergence of frivolous dialect novels about famous courtesans, also reflected on the Shanghai popular prints. For instance, there are prints showing famous Shanghai courtesans playing pipa in a pavilion surrounded by a boisterous crowd of visitors (ЛТ-5351). One of the local genres found on the prints is danghuchuan 蕩湖船 (swinging in a boat on the lake) popular in Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces, which included dancing, singing and moves resembling the swinging of a boat. A popular genre of female tale singing tanci 彈詞 was rather common particularly in Suzhou and was performed both in secluded girl rooms as well as tea houses for male audience. Prints ЛТ-5344, ЛТ-5345 show figures of four musicians playing instruments with a commentary, some prints have slips of paper with an extended commentary written by Alekseev`s Chinese mentors, all this providing a new rich data for this paper. Keywords: late imperial China, Shanghai, popular print, drama, storytelling, tea house.