Hi, everyone. Welcome back to your favorite segment, Global Village.

Today we have another guest in our studio from another part of the world, our neighbor Russia. Today she's going to talk to us about Russian culture. Welcome to the studio, Xilan.

Hello, 大家好。

As kind of a tradition of the show, could you say hi to our audience very quickly in Russian？

What does that mean?

So first question I would like to ask you is where in Russia are you from? And how would you describe that region? So we can have a general idea.

Yeah, sure. I will tell everyone. Actually I'm from the small and very ancient city in my country, it called Ryazan. I think in China it's pronounced as Liangzan, so it's very similar to the name of the Kong fu master, Ryazan. 梁赞, it's right the same way. And actually the place I was born is a very old ancient city, even more older than Moscow.

Uh.

So it's like a very historical place, but it's not a very big city. So usually we don't have a lot of population there and like the city is very small. So this region actually has rich traditions and centuries-old history.

Uh.

So in the past, people who live there, they create the great cultural layer of traditions and memory of many generations which is like inspirable from the Slavic culture. So that region is mostly like famous for Slavic culture.

The Slavic culture.

Yes, like real Russian traditional place. So also we have a lot of natural resources and the main waterway is Оka river, 奥卡河. divides into like the territory of the resident region in two parts, it's like separated in northern and covered mostly with forests, and southern one covered with the forest steps. So the climate is kind of gently continental, I would say. So it's not very cold and it's not very hot.

That sounds ideal. So it's rich in history and it's also rich in natural resources, you mentioned it's more the Slavic culture就是斯拉夫文化. Now, here I would like to ask a relevant question. Russia is a massive country that spans two continents, you have the Asian part, you have the European part, how has this affected the people and culture？So would you say Russia is more divided as in some parts are more Europeans, some parts are more Asian or is it everyone is feeling two sides of the culture?

You know, like recently because they made a lot of research about this territorial thing and mainly there is no official information or official reason to say that Russia is just European or like Asian. Because as you said, the territory is very big and cover most of the part of the Asia, especially to the east place like Mongolia, and that area.

Uh.

But you know, Russian is considered to be both, like in European and Asian, because of the territory straddles both continents which needs two Eurasian Characters, but it's also observed like… it's very hard to say because our country is very big and we have a lot of different ethnic groups.

Uh.

We don't just have Russian; we also have a lot of ethnic groups that more related to Asian countries.

I see.

Such as central Asia and like Asian… like Mongolian people and others. But it's also like genuinely accepted now that 23% of Russia is in Europe and 77% in Asia.

I see, OK.

But the most population in Russia lives in the European part of the country. So I think it's more related to historical development, such as from the long history back then, the European countries that were near to the Russian part like European part of the Russia, they were communicating more closer than, for example, China with Russia, because China is too far from the European part, where is the Moscow, Petersburg, those big cities there.

They didn't have enough context. So that's why maybe European culture and lifestyle actually affects us more than Asian one. But we still like I can say that we officially we don't define ourselves as European or an Asian country.

Just Russian.

We are something in the middle or something special. I don't know.

Rather unique identity.

The unique, that's true.

Yeah. I know that's a really complex topic, but we're not going to obviously go into history or politics, but one thing, one big part of any culture is the food culture. The reason why I was asking that question is also for example, you said that's a very unique culture you got influences from both sides. Then what is the food culture like?

Actually, you know, the Russian food culture is not that much complicated as Chinese one, I might say. Because in China, each village, each city, each region has like its own special, unique type of food; and sometimes I'm sure like there are a lot of Chinese people who have never been to some other parts in their country, they never tried it before.

That is definitely true.

Yeah. So for us, because we have a lot of nationalities in my country and the food also can be different. Like if there are some ethnic groups, they might have their own special cuisine, like different foods, but as mainly traditionally for Russian people, we don't have a very complex type of Russian food, like the main food is like soup.

Bread?

Yeah. It can be like different like borsch, like a very traditional one. And I must say like potato and bread are two main things that we consider to have all the time. For example, if they say like in my country, we say if you don't have any food, but if you have bread or potato, you will not starve to death, you will survive. I think it's the same analogy with the…

Rice.

Rice, in China rice is the…

Staple.

Rice is everything.

But in China is perhaps more southern, northern people, I think they do eat MANTOU a lot. So in that part is probably closer to like bread.

Yeah, maybe like MANTOU and noodles…

Exactly.

As well. Yeah.

It's so original. Really.

Yeah.

So those are the staples. Do you eat a lot of meat in the daily diet?

Oh. Yeah. We love meat, we eat a lot. I remember back myself like I was studying at middle and high school in Russia and those times I remember every weekend, me and my parents were going to the countryside spending time outside and we usually always do barbecue.

Barbecue.

I think it's more similar to European culture because European people also like to go outside countryside for picnics, so they need to make a barbecue, they like meat as well.

If I remember correctly, there is something in Russia called Dacha? Am I pronouncing that right? It's like a summer house, sort of thing like outside of…

It's Dacha.

Sorry for the pronunciation.

Yeah, it's called Dacha. It's a kind of a house that you always go on weekends on holidays or vacations. It's not like the stable place for a living but also there are some people they prefer to live in the countryside and work in the city. So they have cars, they go to the city for work like every morning, like my parents, usually my father. He likes to spend time in the village. He thinks it's much peaceful for him. I think it's also related to the age.

Yeah, true.

I think when you get older, you want to run from the big city from this…

Relax.

Crazy lifestyle, and that's why my parents also like to spend time outside like in the countryside. But usually, me myself, I also like village, like I like countryside because being as a poet like writing poems or something, I need a…

Quiet.

That connection with the nature a lot.

Yeah. Definitely.

So it's kind of effect on me.

So that was a little bit about the food itself, but what about the lifestyle? Like do people mostly cook at home? Like now, your generation do people mostly cook at home or eat out? If at home then who does the cooking?

Yeah, I think this is also a very good question because I've been like living in China for past eight years.

Wow.

Yeah. It's a long time. I found out that nowadays there are a lot of people they don't cook at home or they even don't know how to cook.

Yeah.

They just go outside. I think it's also related to economical development like the it's uh, the economy, the lifestyle everything gets easier. You can order taking…

Delivery.

You just can go out. They're like few blocks you already find some food and you don't have to like consider to cook something yourself. But I think this is also a big problem because everything we eat outside is actually not good for health, because you don't know what they use.

Exactly.

Maybe it's not fresh products or they use like a second, third time oil like they don't use the fresh one, the new one. It's also like effects on people health.

And in my country, like my parents is for my family, we prefer to cook home every time, like my father, I wouldn't say he doesn't like to eat outside. I mean, it depends, because sometimes there is some gathering or party, for sure you going outside somewhere with friends, you have to eat out. But he still prefers to eat at home and usually my mom cooks for him, like in my country, women mostly cook for a man or for the family.

I see.

But it's kind of different from China because like recently I…

Really?

A lot of Chinese men cook for the family.

Maybe, that’s just…I still think that…

I don't know, like a lot of people told me.

Probably the majority I have seen still women does all the cooking. Maybe there are now more men in China doing the cooking. I'm not sure if it's a trend.

Yeah. I think it's a young generation most maybe like young guys, but like for us in… I also kind of try to find some time to cook myself at home like recently because of my lifestyle is mostly like Chinese people. I'm always in a rush, I'm always going to where I'm always doing something. It kind of affects on my time. I don't have enough time to cook, but if I have that time, I'm using it for cooking, I'm doing my home food or I just, don't know like something else.

Yeah, I share that passion.

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