Songs Sung by Russian Émigrés in China

This article is devoted to the song traditions of the Russian émigré diaspora in China (Harbin, Shanghai, Tianjin, etc.) in the first half of the twentieth century. Songs played a big role in preserving Russian traditional culture in China among émigrés. This publication presents the contents of the first émigré editions of the song collections: Russian Songs. “Varyag” (Shanghai, 1921); Favorite Songs (Harbin, 1930); Collection of Songs Performed by the Cossack Choir Under the Direction of V. I. Fedotov (Harbin, 1932); Russian Songs (Harbin, 1936); and Songs of a Russian Soldier (Harbin, 1939). Particular attention is paid to editions of Soviet songs that were published by the Shanghai publishing house “Epoch,” and Old Believer songs are noted. The role of the émigré Ivan Innokent’evich Serebrennikov in collecting the texts is emphasized. The article also provides brief biographical information about other people involved in promoting Russian songs in Russian China (including Alexey Petrovich Kryukov). Partial information is given about the production of Russian gramophone records in China. The publication makes use of foreign collections — the Museum of Russian Culture in San Francisco and the Hamilton Library of the University of Hawaii — as well as private ones and materials collected by the author.