The current stage of interaction between the theater schools of Russia and China in the context of the dialogue of cultures

Veledinsky Oleg Valerievich ORCID: 0000-0003-0131-4346 Master of Theater Arts, Senior Lecturer of the Department of Stage Speech, Russian State Institute of Performing Arts (St. Petersburg) 140251, Russia, Leningradskaya oblast', g. Saint Petersburg, ul. Mokhovaya, 34-35 o_veled.@mail.ru Other publications by this author

Introduction.

The theater schools of Russia and China interacted and intersected in different ways in the past historical periods of relations between the two countries. In the 1950s, theater teachers from the USSR were attracted to work at theater institutes in Beijing and Shanghai ^{[1,2,3; 4, p.12]}. In the 90s of the last century, the experience and achievements of the Department of Stage Speech of the St. Petersburg Theater Academy were presented to Shanghai students, graduate students and teachers by Professor Yu.A.Vasiliev. His work had a great influence on speech training at the Shanghai Theater Academy and in China as a whole ^{[6, pp.16-17]}. In the same years, 11 leading theater teachers in China, led by Professor Xu Xiaozhong, studied acting teaching at theater universities in Moscow and St. Petersburg for a month, which resulted in a scientifically based program (1993) of systematic training of actors in China ^{[4, p.17]}. In the 2000s, training was conducted Chinese highly qualified specialists for theatrical educational institutions of China through postgraduate studies in St. Petersburg ^{[4, 5, 6,7]}. In the 2010s, there were invitations of Russian theater teachers to Beijing, to the Central Academy of Drama (TSAD) to stage diploma performances on Russian classics ^{[8, p. 61]}.

Nowadays, China's policy in the field of higher professional education is focused on international exchanges and long-term cultural cooperation. The state actively sends its students to other countries, including Russia, for training in a wide range of specialties and directions.  For example, since 2017, almost all creative workshops at the faculties of the Russian State Institute of Performing Arts (RGISI, St. Petersburg) have Chinese students. Chinese and mixed groups operate within the framework of the graduate and master's programs of the RGISI.

A prominent place in this row is occupied by the Russian-Chinese theater and educational project "Interactive Chinese-Russian Education", which started at the Russian State Institute of Performing Arts (RGISI) in 2015. Chinese students study at RGISI for two years, and for two years at the Central Academy of Drama (TSAD) in Beijing (hence the name of the project "2+2"). 

The project implements the "Agreement on Cooperation on bilateral interuniversity exchanges", concluded in 2014 by theatrical universities of Russia and China.  Teachers in Russia who work with the Chinese in such a specific field as acting training face a complex of complex tasks. It is necessary to prepare Chinese actors of a new type in a short time on the basis of the Russian theatrical tradition, the legacy of K. S. Stanislavsky and thereby give impetus to the further development of Chinese drama theater of the European type and Chinese cinema ^{[8, 9]}.

What is the meaningful meaning of this project? Maybe this is a simple “pumping” of the achievements of a highly developed culture into a less developed one? What should be the character, the significant features of the process itself, implemented moreover in the context of cultural globalization full of contradictions?

The concept of "globalization" is most often used to explain the meaning and nature of the modern world order, viewed on a planetary scale, globalization is seen as "an increasingly intensive integration of both goods and services markets and capital" ^{[10, p.7]}. In other words, globalization is an international system of state-economic relations that claims universality, universality and even complete lack of alternatives. It is based on the achievements of science and technological progress, continuous technological renewal, which makes it possible to quickly move capital, goods, services and human flows (migration, tourism).

Today, telecommunication technologies provide a single interaction space over borders and regardless of them, the availability of information from anywhere and anywhere in the world. The fight against climate change or the coronavirus pandemic of 2020-2022 unfolding before our eyes has a global character. Non-economic manifestations of globalization are obvious - internationalization of science, education, cultural universalization ^{[11, p.245]}.

If the merger of national economies into a single global system, the spread of the free market to almost all countries of the world, in fact, has been achieved (the presence of political restrictions does not negate the fact itself), if computer networks covering the entire globe are a modern international reality, then the situation is somewhat different with regard to cultural universalization. Globalization means the existence of rules and regulations, the mandatory observance of general regulations, the subordination of sovereign countries to them, for example, the aggressive planting of mass culture based on consumer values. It turned out that intensive foreign cultural influence in many cases means reculturization: the destruction of national traditions, life and spiritual way of life. The desire to forcibly impose other people's values causes a sharp negative reaction. Hence the need for self-defense of national culture in the face of the introduction of alien, distortion or even absorption.

Harvard professor, sociologist and political scientist Samuel Huntington, as you know, was one of the first to feel this threat, identified the dangers and even the inevitability of a conflict of cultures in the modern world. Hence the title of his book: "Clash of Civilizations" (1996, Russian translation 2003). According to S. Huntington, national cultural values, traditions, and peculiarities of mentality are of critical importance: "For most people, cultural identification is the most important thing" ^{[12, p.14. 190-191]}.

An exaggerated sense of pride in one's cultural identity is increasingly becoming a sign of today.  Being a "citizen of the world" for most earthlings does not mean giving up belonging to the people, to the cultural community with which they identify themselves. People are sometimes ready to defend their identity, ethno-cultural "specialness" with more pathos and perseverance than the existing government or national borders. Language, customs, original national art (including in its theatrical manifestations), religion, history must be protected from perversion, displacement or even destruction by global forces. Therefore, today, in relation to the continuously expanding cultural contacts of different countries and peoples (including the interaction of theater education centers of different countries), they often talk not about globalization, but about the dialogue of cultures.

The dialogue of cultures is considered as a fundamental principle that fixes the need of one culture for another. The dialogue of cultures is understood as "a specific form of social interaction based on equality and freedom of the parties involved in it, aimed at clarifying, rapprochement and mutual enrichment of positions" [13. p.100]. This phenomenon can be concretized: "We pose new questions to someone else's culture, which it did not pose to itself, we look for answers to these questions in it, and someone else's culture answers us, opening up to us its new sides, new semantic depths.<...> With such a dialogical meeting of two cultures, they do not merge and do not mix, each retains its unity and integrity, but they are mutually enriched" ^{[14, p.354]}.

Further analysis shows that the dialogue of cultures is a complex, multicomponent phenomenon that requires compliance with a number of principles and mandatory conditions for successful implementation. It can be noted beforehand that a cultural phenomenon in which contact, communication, coordinated actions of different cultures take place must certainly be considered, analyzed and evaluated in the context of a dialogue of cultures. In this case, we get a criterion or criteria that allow us to judge the course, nature and results of a particular process of intercultural interaction.

The main part

Let's consider from this point of view the Russian-Chinese theater and educational project "2+2",

The working curriculum was developed specifically for this contingent on the basis of the Russian Federal State Educational Standard 53.02.00 "Theatrical Art". The main educational program implements the direction of training 52.05.01 "Acting" (specialization-profile "Actor of drama theater and cinema").  It is significant that under the terms of the project, Russian and Chinese teachers of acting and special disciplines work together both in St. Petersburg and in Beijing.   Upon graduation, students receive diplomas from two universities recognized in both countries ^{[9, p.57]}.

The first set was trained in acting under the "2 + 2" project in St. Petersburg and Beijing in 2015-2019. The second set, which started in 2017, also successfully completed their studies, despite the difficulties with the global pandemic of 2020-2021. And in September 2019, Chinese students of the third set began studying in the classrooms of the RGISI.  In order for creative cooperation in the field of theater education to become even more productive, it is necessary to analyze and summarize the experience gained from the interaction of theater schools in Russia and China, improve the methodology and practice of training foreign actors in Russian universities, verifying their actions and the results obtained with the theory and practice of the dialogue of cultures.

Referring to the works of M. M. Bakhtin, V. S. Bybler and their followers allows us to formulate the principles (indispensable, non-alternative conditions) of the success of such a dialogue:

- interaction of equal subjects of cultural dialogue;

- achieving understanding in the course of such interaction;

- penetration into the value system of a particular culture;

- detection of the semantic integrity of cultural boundaries ^{[15,16,17, 18]}.

Based on these conclusions and provisions, modern researchers supplement: the dialogue of cultures will take place in the presence of:

- common grounds for understanding the meanings of another culture;

- opportunities and factors for the reception (perception) of a foreign cultural;

- direct interest in the different other;

- respect for foreign culture;

- the existence or emergence of the interaction space ^{[19,20, 21]}.         

Let's analyze, analyze as briefly as possible on the basis of a modern understanding of the principles and conditions for the success of intercultural dialogue, the process of teaching student actors according to the Russian-Chinese project "2 +2" in the Russian Academy of Sciences.

A few preliminary remarks.

Not every contact, meeting of representatives of different states and peoples is already a dialogue of cultures. For example, the episodic interaction of functionaries representing certain organizations at the conclusion of the agreement between the Central Administrative Commission (Beijing) and the RGISI, and even the stable relations of educational institutions within the framework of this agreement are just forms of coexistence or contacts that have the nature of prerequisites for a dialogue of cultures, the anticipation of such a dialogue. But the practical implementation of the project, the educational process and its results can be considered in this context.  After all, deep levels in the structure of value orientations of representatives of both cultures are touched upon here, the cultural activity of the participants in the process is formed and manifested, the task of "ascending to culture" and finding optimal strategies for intercultural dialogue is solved.

In the course of further discussions, as an evidence-based illustration, we will use facts, examples from personal experience of teaching stage speech in Chinese (according to the "2 +2" project) and mixed RGISI courses. This choice is due to the professional activity of the author and the fact that the creative, effective nature of speech training highly correlates it with the general tasks of education and training of the actor.

Let's start with the obvious condition necessary for a dialogue of cultures:  the existence or emergence of the interaction space. In the work "The problem of content, material and form in verbal artistic creativity" M. M. Bakhtin states: "Every cultural act essentially lives on borders: this is its seriousness and significance; distracted from borders, it loses ground, becomes empty, arrogant, degenerates and dies" ^{[15, p.25]}. Borders here is not just an intersection, a boundary, a dividing line, but a meeting place where unification is possible, a cultural act, a dialogue is possible. In other words, a dialogue between two cultures arises only when they come together, interact, and presupposes a certain commonality of space and time of cultural contact.  This is the case in the 2+2 project: for two years Chinese students have been living and studying in St. Petersburg, in the Russian language environment, in the creative atmosphere of a large multidisciplinary theater university, one of the oldest in the country. An extensive extracurricular cultural program is being implemented with Chinese students. It includes excursions to museums in St. Petersburg and its suburbs, visits to performances of the MDT Theater of Europe, trips around the country: to Moscow, to Pushkin places in the Pskov region, to the Russian North in the Arkhangelsk region, participation in International Cultural Forums in 2016, 2018, creative meetings and master classes with acting workshops of RGUTIS, etc. This is how the "environment that grows and nourishes the personality" is created in the space of the university (P.A.Florensky).

 All this testifies to the availability of broad opportunities and factors for the reception (perception) of foreign culture as a condition of intercultural dialogue.

The training is focused on Russian educational standards (FGOS). Russian teachers work with Chinese students in all academic disciplines according to specially prepared programs. After two years, the training continues in Beijing.  Graduation performances are prepared, as a rule, according to Russian classics, and are played in Chinese. The first issue (2019) prepared the graduation performances "The Captain's Daughter" (staged based on the novel of the same name by A. S. Pushkin and his "Pugachev's Story") and "Fatherless" (based on an early play by A. P. Chekhov). Graduates of 2021 showed performances of "Love and Hate" based on the works of A. S. Pushkin (dramatization of "Belkin's Stories": "Blizzard", "Stationmaster" and "Shot") and "Three Sisters" by A. P. Chekhov. This provided a social space for sustainable contact and interaction between the two national cultures.

Now let us turn to a fundamentally important, indispensable, non-alternative condition for the success of the dialogue of cultures: the interaction of equal subjects of cultural dialogue. This condition also seems obvious:  the fundamental equality of all cultures without exception in their human manifestations is usually declared (due to the unified nature of man as a biosocial being, the universal nature of work and creativity). Each national culture expresses the universal, universal content in its own way. The uniqueness, the unique originality of each culture only emphasizes that in a certain respect different cultures are really similar, equal to each other, equal.

However, in our case, Russian culture, taken as a whole, in the complex implemented by the theater university, can be considered a donor culture: it transmits, broadcasts, teaches. Chinese culture, represented by a specific student group, is a recipient: here, culture mainly receives, accepts, and learns. In this respect, cultures seem to be in different "weight categories", there is an inequality of statuses. Nevertheless, this does not mean at all that the subjects of the cultural dialogue are unequal.

In the actual equality that exists, it is possible to distinguish the external and internal sides.

The external is determined by the voluntary nature of participation: both for the Russian theater university and for Chinese students (with all the difference in the initial motives), compatibility in the educational process is the result of free choice, mutual interest, mutual desire to hear and understand each other. In this case, interaction is most often aimed at equal cooperation, mutual respect and mutual responsibility for the result. (By the way, here we see the manifestation of another condition necessary for the dialogue of cultures - a direct interest in something different). The working title of the project "2 + 2", which has already been established in official speech practice, emphasizes the parity of the parties, equality of terms of stay and stay in different linguistic environments, in the zones of Russian and national, Chinese culture.

Much more important and significant is the internal side of interaction, which is associated with the awareness and experience of one's ethno-cultural identity and determines the equality of the parties to the cultural dialogue. It is not about equality of rights and responsibilities in the educational process, but about the internally independent position of Chinese students - representatives of their national culture.

Our observations show that this position is generally inherent in Chinese students, it is their distinctive feature, They are proud of belonging to the Chinese culture going back thousands of years (S. Huntington refers to the Confucian civilization and China as "strong" and leading cultures-civilizations!) and they never forget about their national and cultural identity ^{[12, pp.54-55]}. They are highly characterized by a characteristic feature of any genuine dialogue - the preservation of their opinion, their position in the process of mutual understanding.

Repeatedly noticed:  Chinese students accept and assimilate best what, in their opinion, complements, improves, enriches existing knowledge or expands the possibilities of their own national culture. This confirms the conclusion: "Creative understanding does not abandon itself, its place in time, its culture and does not forget anything. The great thing for understanding is the non-availability of the understanding - in time, in space, in culture - in relation to what he wants to creatively understand" ^{[14, p.353]}. At the same time, non-existence is understood not in a specific spatial sense, but as a state of consciousness: it is continuous in the process of interaction, dialogue ^{[22, p.374]}. This is "the uniqueness, the uniqueness of the personal positions of the participants in the dialogue" ^{[18, p.18]}.

However, the acquisition of genuine non-availability is largely hampered by a specific socio-cultural context: the presence of a language barrier, working through an interpreter in group classes and rehearsals. The possibility of identifying with another person, understanding and accepting his position while maintaining a certain distance is significantly reduced. Russian Russian language and Russian culture are overcome by stimulating the study of the Russian language and Russian culture, using paralinguistic methods of influencing students, using two languages (Russian and Chinese) in speech teaching, and including the national element in the educational process as much as possible.

Just one example: the very beginning of speech training classes. The students eagerly commented on the fact that the "breathing-attention-rhythm" triad would be trained using exercises of Oriental origin based on the system of physical and respiratory yoga practices ^[23], and readily joined the classes. However, by the end of the first month of study, I had to face a typical difficulty: the exercises were performed willingly, with desire, technically correctly, without connecting with imagination and play. It was not possible to "revive" them and encourage students to improvise. The shift occurred only at the moment when the students were offered the material close to them for the exercise, which later became known as "Masters of Kung Fu". The application of the practices of the national martial art well known to students made it possible to make the exercise part of not only speech, but also acting training in motion ^{[24, pp.2772-2773]}.

Of course, in the practice of the educational process, there are modifications of the interaction between the teacher and students that differ in the ratio of dialogic and monologue. Both teaching and presentation of mandatory requirements are permissible here. It is possible to influence on the basis of suggestion: prompting to action, influencing consciousness, will, behavior change. Imitation plays a significant role in working with Chinese students (acting on a model, reproducing it, reproducing it). But the dialogical beginning, contact-understanding still prevails. And in the case of acting training of foreign students (especially when meeting different cultural and civilizational traditions)  the result is achieved only in the conditions of active interaction of equal subjects of cultural dialogue and provided that understanding is achieved during such interaction.

 A few additional comments. The desire to comprehend the meaning, to understand - the main thing that distinguishes dialogic from monologue. At the same time, penetration into the essence occurs both on a rational and irrational basis. Feelings stimulate the understanding of the true or hinder it, set its boundaries. That is why the emotional "aura" of classes is so important and essential. Foreign culture is assimilated only in the process of any activity, primarily educational or practical, and in an appropriate atmosphere. The perception of the foreign is carried out by comparing elements of the culture of another nation with the same in their own national culture. As a result, there is what is called "semantic convergence", which develops as a result of a fruitful dialogue of very different and dissimilar cultures.

To characterize acting training at the Russian theater school, the concept of an "internally convincing word" introduced by M. M. Bakhtin in the work "The Word in the Novel" is very significant. Unlike an outwardly convincing, authoritarian word, the word internally convincing is closely intertwined with "its own word" in the process of its assimilation. Here the author gives a characteristic footnote-explanation: "After all, one's own word is gradually and slowly being developed from recognized and assimilated strangers, and the boundaries between them are almost not felt at all at first." In the everyday life of our consciousness, an internally convincing word is half-double, half-empty. "Its creative productivity lies precisely in the fact that it awakens an independent thought and an independent new word, that it organizes the masses of our words from within, and does not remain in an isolated and immobile state." Encountering, interacting and struggling with other internally convincing words, illuminated by various contexts, an internally convincing word is in constant development, in constant search for new things, "in the zone of contact with unfinished modernity." Utterance, judgment, remark are of particular importance in creative and life communication, a variant of which can be considered a university educational process, especially in the aspect of speech learning.  The material here is primarily a word. It is also a symbolic material of inner speech: "all other, non-verbal signs flow around the speech element, are immersed in it and do not lend themselves to complete isolation and separation from it." Hence the conclusion is clear: "The word is present in every act of understanding and in every act of interpretation" This conclusion in our case means the need for a dialogue-based approach to the language in which the word will sound in the classroom, in which understanding will be carried out ^{[15, pp.158-159]}.

Looking back, it can be stated that in working with Chinese students, three speech educational cycles with the following, perhaps, conventional names and a different ratio of the languages used were clearly identified:

The first is the initial Russian-speaking with the expanding use of bilingualism (bilingualism);

The second one is advanced, containing multi-element bilingual training and work on artistic material using two languages;

The third is the transitional stage, ensuring the execution in the national language of the author's material previously implemented in Russian ^{[24, p. 2775]}.

Bilingualism has become the most characteristic feature of the educational process at the first and second stages. It arose naturally in the practice of classes and was positively received by students and experts at control events. It became clear that this was a creative necessity. In fact, there was a situation of simultaneous ("synchronous") existence of national and Russian speech, based on the search for semantic, rhythmic and emotional coincidences. Acting, playing interaction was provided regardless of the language means used.

The third educational cycle took place directly at the Beijing Theater Academy. The creative result was a previously prepared educational speech performance in Russian, performed in Chinese.

However, if we had limited ourselves to the question of the relationship of languages in the process of speech learning, we would have extremely narrowed the problem of understanding in general in relation to our case of the dialogue of cultures. We are talking about the active position of the students themselves in the educational process. This moment is crucial. Any influence on the part of the teacher, every utterance is translated (or should be translated) by the student into an active "responding context" due to the fact that "understanding is dialogical". "Every true understanding is active and is the germ of an answer. The topic can be mastered only by active understanding, becoming can be mastered only with the help of becoming" ^{[25, pp.236-237]}. And in the development of this thought, it can be argued that you can master speech and acting skills only by moving independently, passing step by step sequentially, leading to skill, mastery.  This is the only way. And it was precisely this kind of activity, the desire to get used to the world of another culture, penetration into the system of its values, that was observed among Chinese students at all stages of training as a result of an active understanding inherent in the dialogue of cultures.

The problem of understanding in the context of the dialogue of cultures is one of the key ones. There is another prerequisite associated with it, which is conducive to such a dialogue:  the presence or search for common grounds for understanding the meanings of another culture.  In other words, in order to start and move forward in the framework of the educational process, it is necessary to determine the starting points, the common ground that makes mutual understanding of cultures possible.

The dialogue of cultures is impossible without understanding and thinking about basic values, since the task of bringing together "cultural codes" within a certain sphere of activity is being solved. The success of such a dialogue, to a certain extent, depends on the compatibility of stable, relatively permanent traits that determine people's behavior based on actual interests.  

The analysis done earlier by V. A. Ruchin ^{[26,27, 28]} frees us from the need to consider this condition in detail and allows us to assert that, despite the seemingly great dissimilarity, the Russian and Chinese cultural traditions turned out to be in significant facets, if not similar, then in many features close. There is a certain kinship of mental traits between Russians and Chinese, many civilizational features of Russia and China are similar, they have a lot in common:

- the interests of the individual are subordinated to public, collective interests;

- internal intentions of the individual: to act in accordance with the tradition of the community, group;

- faith in a wise ruler;

- attitude to nature as a gift from God, as a value, a sense of unity with nature;

- religious and moral attitudes are similar: a person's goal is moral improvement, spiritual self-development.

This similarity expands the possibilities of convergence and synthesis of cultural codes. According to V. A. Ruchin, "it can be stated that both trends in Chinese philosophy [Confucianism and Taoism – O.V.] are consonant with the spiritual structure of Russian culture and in some sense complement and intertwine with it" ^{[27, p.223]}.

Of course, the dialogue of cultures also presupposes orientation towards common values that are significant for both sides. The single methodological basis that ensures the fundamental and integrity of the educational process of Chinese students at the RGISI is acting training based on the long-standing traditions of the Russian theater, on the laws of acting, discovered by K.S. Stanislavsky, V. I. Nemirovich-Danchenko, their students and followers. In this regard, it is appropriate to say about such a condition of the dialogue of cultures as the discovery of the semantic integrity of cultural boundaries.

The semantic integrity of cultural boundaries in relation to the acting training of Chinese students at the Russian theater school means, in our opinion, the meaningful unity of all aspects of acting training based on the principles of K.S. Stanislavsky's teaching. The fact is that the training of an actor in a theater school is structured: certain aspects of acting are singled out as different academic disciplines. The relatively short training time (especially taking into account the foreign language environment), the variety of tasks of acting training complicate the achievement of results. It is important that the student discovers and feels the conceptual unity of the educational process: all special disciplines are equally significant, subordinate to the logic and sequence of acting training, acting as a creative dominant.

This condition is also significant for the teaching staff. Classes in special disciplines from the very beginning should be realized by both the teacher and students as a process of mastering the skills of an actor. This determines the selection of material for training exercises and creative presentations. The training of technological skills should become and becomes at the same time the solution of a certain creative task, the expression of a certain meaning. Without such a combination, it is impossible to provide training for a modern actor.  Semantic integrity is achieved only when the entire multicomponent educational process is subordinated to a single task of teaching acting.

Concluding this largely cursory review of the features of the Russian-Chinese theater and educational project "2 + 2" in the context of the dialogue of cultures, we will make an attempt to formulate what will manifest in this case such a necessary condition for this dialogue as respect for another culture.

Regarding Chinese students  this condition can be considered obvious: they showed this respect by the very fact of their arrival to study in Russia, at a Russian theater university. After all, for this it was necessary to pass a competitive selection, to win the right to study here. Thus, they showed respect for the Russian theatrical culture, based on the long-existing theatrical tradition, the fundamental and scientific validity of acting education.  It is no coincidence that the Russian-Chinese project "2+2" is being implemented in St. Petersburg. This is "the city of innovation, the city of imperial meanings, a cross-border city" ^{[29, p.600]}.

It is not so obvious, but, undoubtedly, this condition is also present in relation to the teaching staff of the St. Petersburg university. In our opinion, it lies in the fact that the acting training standard for the university in Chinese studios has been transformed, taking into account the ethnopsychological, mental characteristics and interests of Chinese students. The national character, peculiarities of temperament, communication, and life philosophy of modern Chinese youth were taken into account.

In relation to speech learning, the appearance of foreign students in the Russian State Educational Institution stimulated the development of a special option for the transfer of relevant skills and abilities. This option can be called ethnomethodics of speech learning. The main methodological approach to mastering the primary skills of stage speech is the same in working with students of any nationality. It is based on the common physiology and mechanisms of speech generation. The specificity is in the ethnopsychological features of the students, in the originality of the actor's instrumentation of the sound and the literary basis of the training exercises.

In this case, techniques and methods are used, taken from the methodological arsenal of the Department of Stage Speech of the Russian Academy of Sciences and modified, reworked in relation to the teaching of Chinese students.  A number of training exercises were developed specifically for this contingent. Ethnometodics is based on the teaching of stage speech using two languages and the subsequent transfer of professional skills into national artistic practice. The creation of a system of teaching Chinese students as a kind of social innovation also changes the understanding of their own actions (in particular, in relation to the teaching of stage speech). The ethnocultural experience acquired during the training of Chinese students deserves separate consideration.

Conclusions.

Thus, in the implementation of the Russian-Chinese theater and educational project "2 + 2", all the basic conditions are viewed and implemented, allowing to define the events, events and their results that took place within the framework of the project as a full-fledged dialogue of cultures.

The cultures of Russia and China interacted and intersected in different ways in past historical periods, but today, as never before, there are points of contact and mutual enrichment. The "2+2" project is a manifestation of two strategies at once characteristic of the internationalization of higher education in modern China: "going outside" ("going abroad") and "attracting foreign" ^{[30, p.31]}.

Within the framework of the project, universities give Chinese students and teachers the opportunity to travel abroad, attract Russian specialists to work in China not only for introductory lectures, master classes, but also for practical teaching. A matrix of combining different traditions and different approaches is being implemented. There is an opportunity to master the most advanced technologies in line with the national theatrical tradition, the understanding of cultural diversity deepens.

  Countries and peoples of the whole world exist today in conditions of mutual influence, comprehensive development of humanitarian ties.  At the same time, cultural globalization causes a desire to preserve their own cultural values, to protect their cultural identity. The Russian-Chinese project "2+2" removes this contradiction. It allows Chinese students to master the Russian theatrical tradition without sacrificing their cultural identity and enriching the possibilities of Chinese theater and cinema of the European type. The project does not interfere with maintaining independence in development, does not imply the dissolution of national culture in the flow of Westernization or total globalism. Here there are mutually significant cultural ties, dialogue and interaction of cultures, and directly in the process of creating culture.

The Russian-Chinese project "2 + 2" can be considered as a successful implementation of the dialogue of cultures, as a variant of intercultural interaction that promotes mutual understanding of representatives of different countries and peoples in such a specific area as theater education, training of actors in theater school. The idea of this project best corresponded to the modern understanding of instrumentality (the ability to influence and transform practice)  dialogue of cultures as a way to achieve mutual understanding and agreement of cultures.

This variant of intercultural interaction is also productive from the point of view of innovation, creating a unique field of cross-cultural experiments. The 2+2 project expands the potential space for training foreign actors in Russian theater universities using the acquired ethno-cultural experience.