The Russian as the Other/Alien in the cultural landscape of China

Abstract

The article is devoted to the analysis of the image of the Russian as the Other/Alien in the Internet discourse of China. The author relies on the Chinese search engine «Baidu» and search queries related to Russia and the Russians. The analysis is based on two key aspects of the image of the Other: alimental markers and sexuality.

In the analysis of food preferences of the Other several ethnic groups were selected, according to the most popular Internet queries related to ideas about their nutritional preferences, which made it possible to identify a number of conditional features, the correlation between which was tracked using mathematical methods of matrix construction and statistical calculations based on the Pearson formula.

Five large models were obtained that interact with each other in varying degrees. The resulting picture showed both disregard for the Alien who eats inedible things, and a certain interest in his nutritional resources. The Russians in this case were not very different from other ethnic groups as imagined by the Chinese, and at the same time were not the worst Aliens for them.

Analysis of keyword queries associated with the names of the countries chosen for the investigation showed that the Chinese Internet users look for different things for each country. In the case with Russia, people most often are searching for videos with erotic content or images of “Russian Beauties”. That allows the author to state that Russians are the most sexualized ethnic group in perception of Chinese Internet users.