Students from China and Russia gathered in Shanghai’s Hengfu Historical and Cultural Area on Sunday for a poetry and music event tied to the 2026-2027 China-Russia Years of Education. Citynewsservice reported that the day began with a walking tour through the neighborhood, where students discussed Russian literary classics at the Pushkin Monument before visiting the Cao Ying Study, dedicated to the translator who introduced Leo Tolstoy’s major works to Chinese readers.
One Russian student on the tour said Cao Ying devoted his life to helping Tolstoy’s words take root in China, according to Citynewsservice. The group then assembled at the Shanghai Writers’ Association for a program blending poems and songs. Classical poems about Shanghai by Lin Zaiyong, Party secretary of Shanghai Normal University, were read alongside Anna Akhmatova’s verses about St Petersburg, connecting the Huangpu River with the Neva.
Citynewsservice reported that Pushkin’s poem To Kern was read while an accordion played the Soviet-era song The Hawthorn Tree. Russian children also sang the Chinese folk song Jasmine Flower, bringing the two cultures together through shared musical performance.
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