In the early period of the Russo-Sino-Japanesetriangular relationship, language transformation wasone of the pivotal effects to emerge from theintroduction of Russian literature into East Asia.As Karen Thornber points out, ‘The many versions ofbaihua (the newwritten vernacular) that proliferated in China inthe 1920s were hybrids not only of classicalChinese, the premodern vernacular, and contemporarycolloquial speech but also of Japanese and westernsyntactical structures.’ Most scholarly discussionof language reform in China has focused on thenegotiation between China and Western Europeanlanguages; however, new insights can arise when weturn to the often-overlooked role of the Russianlanguage in East Asian language reform.

The translation of Russian texts was one of theearliest and most crucial ways that Japanese andChinese writers engaged with the Western world. Theintroduction of Russian literature into East Asiatested the ability of Japanese and Chinesetranslators to work at the limits of their ownlanguages’ intelligibility. Many aspects of theRussian language could not readily be translatedinto Japanese or Chinese; meanwhile, those languageshad developed an integrated system ofself-presentation, honed over thousands of years ofpractice, which made it less amenable to abruptcultural change. On the other hand, though, theattempts to reconcile them led to literaryinnovation in both Japanese and Chinese.