On the afternoon of December 14th, the closing ceremony of the 8th NKU Russian Drama Festival was successfully held at the Oriental Arts Building at the Balitai Campus. Professor Yan Guodong, Dean of the School of Foreign Studies (SFS); Professor Wang Lidan, Chair of the Department of Russian; faculty members Dr Jiang Min, Dr Wang Ye, Dr Xu Lili, Dr Ye Fangfang, and Dr Guo Laimei from the Department of Russian; as well as foreign instructors Сергей Владимирович Беликов andАнастасия; and Dr Liu Jingling, a faculty member from Beijing Foreign Studies University, attended the event as judges.
As a signature event of the Foreign Languages program at Nankai University, the drama festival officially began at 2:30 p.m. on December 14th. The Class of 2025 Russian language majors took the stage first. Using poetic language and rhythmically rich dialogue, they delivered a brilliant Russian-language performance of the classic Russian fairy tale The Fisherman and the Golden Fish, showcasing the dramatic allegory of the kind yet timid old fisherman, the greedy and arrogant old woman, and the mysterious golden fish, which received enthusiastic applause from the audience.
Then, the master students from grade 2025 majoring in Russian language and literature presented the adapted play Sasha, Take Out the Garbage. The play depicts difficult choices faced by the families of martyrs after their husbands’ “return” from the war. With carefully designed props and delicate and moving interpretation, it conveys the cherish of peace and the profound inquiry of human nature.
The undergraduate students from garde 2024 vividly interpreted the excerpts from the masterpiece Недоросль (Dude) by Денис Иванович Фонвизин, an outstanding Russian playwright, which vividly showed the ignorance and educational disorder of Russian aristocratic families in the 18th century, and made the audience touch the realistic echo across the times in laughter.
During the intermission, Liu Hanwen, an undergraduate from grade 2025, brought Balalaika solo Коробейники. The melodious sound added a touch of rich Russian ethnic customs to the whole performance.
Subsequently, the master students majoring in Russian interpretation from grade 2025 performed the creative translation and dubbing animation Zootopia segment, continuing the contemporary fable about friendship and cooperation in the cross-language transformation.
At last, the undergraduate Russian majors of grade 2023 reappeared the selected passages of Александр Сергеевич Пушкин’s poetic novel Евгений Онегин with deep interpretation and poetic monologues, portraying the image of the protagonist as a “superfluous person” wandering between social reality and self-ideal.
After the performance, Prof. Yan Guodong, Prof. Wang Lidan, Dr. Сергей Владимирович Беликов, Dr. Анастасия, and Dr. Liu Jingling from Beijing Foreign Studies University respectively summarized and commented on the participating plays. The judges and teachers fully affirmed the outstanding performance of the students in language use, stage presentation and cultural understanding, and encouraged them to continue to explore the rich connotation of the Russian language and culture with drama as the medium.
After review, the performance of Dude won the first prize; Zootopia and The Fisherman and the Golden Fish won the second prize; Sasha, Take Out the Garbage and Евгений Онегин won the third prize. Liu Yuwen, a 2025 undergraduate, and Shang Jingyu, a 2024 undergraduate, won the best actor and actress awards respectively. Li Qianming and Xiao Xiaorui, master students of 2025, won the best supporting actor and actress.
