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PolishStudiesinChinaYesterdayandToday
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Until1957,c.20-24studentswereenrolledforPolishstudieseveryyear.In
1956,bothPolishandCzechstudiesweretransferredfromBeijingUniversityto
theBeijingRussianInstitute,wheretheyestablishedtheDepartmentofPolishand
CzechLanguages.InFebruary1956,theBeijingForeignLanguagesInstituteand
theBeijingRussianInstituteweremergedintotheBeijingForeignStudiesInsti-
tute,nowcalledBeijingForeignStudiesUniversity.
WhenIbeganmyworktherein2000,Polishstudieswereembeddedinthe
structuresoftheDepartmentofEastEuropeanLanguages.Tatnamereflected
thethenobsoletegeo-politicalreality:in1960s,morechairswereaddedtothe
department-ofRomanian,Hungarian,Bulgarian,Albanian,Serbo-Croatianand
Germanlanguages.Tatconfigurationwasdeterminedbythegeographicallo-
cationandthesimilar,albeitalreadynon-existent,politicalrealitiesofcountries
wherethesaidlanguageswereused(theGermanlanguageinEastGermany!).
Tisisconfirmedbythelaterdevelopmentsatthatdepartment,whichwasre-
namedtheFacultyofEuropeanLanguagesaferincludingtheChairofFinnish
Language.Since2007,theunithasexistedastheFacultyofEuropeanLanguages
andCultures.
TracingthehistoryofPolishstudiesinChina,itbecomesquiteclearthat
theChineseinterestinPolandandPolishcultureandlanguagecoincidedand
stilltendstocoincidewithmutualPolish-Chineserelations.Tiswasthecase
in1950,asalreadymentioned,whensoonafertheproclamationofNewChina
anditsofcialrecognitionbythePolishauthoritiesinOctober1949,theChi-
nesePeople’sRepublicsent,asatokenofsocialistbrotherhood,itsfirststudents
onscholarshipstoPoland.In1957,whenPolandhadtosupporttheSovietsin
theSoviet-Chineseconflict,thegroupof24studentswhohadbarelycomplet-
edtheirfirstyearofPolishstudies,wasdisbandedandsenttoothercourses
atdiferentuniversities.However,afer1976,whenChinagraduallyopenedto
theworld,theChineseversionofAdamMickiewiczForefathers’EvePartIIIsaw
thelightoftheday.
IpresenttheforegoingfactsbyrelyingontheaccountsofLeszekCyrzyk,Yan
DeyouandYiLijun,whofoundthemselvesattheveryepicentreofthosedevelop-
mentsafectingthePolishstudies,andwhich,inturn,stronglyimpactedonboth
theirpersonalandprofessionallives.AferhisreturntoPolandin1957,Leszek
Cyrzyk(theveryfirstPolishlanguageteacherinChina)neverceasedtobeinter-
estedinthemattersofPolishstudiesinChinaandChinaassuch,ashehimself
wrote(in2010);italsoinspiredhispioneeringresearchinthefieldofPolish-Chi-
neseliteraryandculturalrelations.YanDeyou(杨德友)wasfromthatgeneration
ofstudentsofPolishstudiesinBeijingwhoweredeniedtheopportunitytocontin-
ueaferthefirstyear.Atthattime,hewasorderedtostudyEnglishattheShanxi
UniversityinNorth-WesternChina.Asheadmittedhehasneverbeenseparated
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