“Foreign” cities of China: shanghai in Russian travelogues of the late 19th - early 20th centuries

The article continues the study of Russian travel writing about China, focusing on the phenomenon of foreign concessions in several Chinese ports forcibly opened to Europeans in the mid-19th to early 20th centuries. The authors of these travelogues include missionaries, scientists, military personnel, sailors, doctors, writers, and travelers who visited China at different times and left descriptions and opinions about the settlements, complementing and enriching each other. The primary focus is on descriptions of Shanghai, described by explorers as a “state within a state”. The article highlights three main aspects: the city's structure and appearance, relations between Chinese and Europeans, and cultural interactions. Despite the assertive nature of European civilization, it had limited influence on China's long-standing cultural trajectory due to several factors: first, the enduring and continuous nature of Chinese culture, which established strong developmental traditions on both mental and material levels; second, the geographically limited scope of foreign influence; and third, the explicitly colonial objectives behind this influence.