Experience Russian culture

About three years ago, some Chinese TV producers even did TV versions of some Russian movies once popular among older Chinese audiences in the 1970s, with actors and actresses from Russia and other former Soviet Union nations. 　　

　　But Russian oil art, in particular, has exerted a strong influence upon oil painters on the Chinese mainland, particularly in the 1950-70s, said Xi Jingzhi, a Beijing-based senior researcher in Russian art. 　

　　For instance, famous Russian artist K M Maksimov (1913-93) came and taught in China from 1955-1957 at the Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing. 　　

　　Many of his students, including Jin Shangyi, chairman of Chinese Artists Association, and Zhan Jianjun, chairman of Chinese Oil Painters Society, have become the mainstay of Chinese oil painting circles. 　　

　　The Russian influence is still strong even today, although the Chinese art scene is much more diversified than it was decades ago, she said. 　　

　　However, she pointed out, during the "cultural revolution" (1966-76), many Chinese artists had only copied rigidly from their Russian counterparts the painting techniques and "revolutionary" subjects. But she said they largely failed to learn about the Russian artists' emphasis on human conditions at lower social classes and their deep compassion for the underprivileged.