Multiculturality as a Subject of the Image in the Collection of Short Stories “The Stars of Manchuria” by A. P. Hejdok

Lin' Guanqiong ORCID: 0009-0006-9397-7081 PhD in Philology Lecturer, Faculty of Philology, Shenzhen MSU-BIT University 1 International University Park Road, Dayun New Town, Longgang District, Shenzhen, Guangdong Province, 518172, P.R. China linguantsyun@mail.ru

Alfred Petrovich Haydock (1892-1990) is one of the most famous writers of the Harbin diaspora of the older generation, whose works were read by almost all Russian emigrants in Harbin. Traveling to many places and having his own interest, the writer got acquainted with various cultures, which he reflected in his literary heritage.

After moving from Russia to Harbin, from the 1920s. Haydock took up creative work. In 1929, his debut short story "The Man with the Dog" was published in the magazine "Rubezh". In 1934, the collection of short stories "The Stars of Manchuria" was published, which includes 16 short stories written by Haydock in 1929-1934. The places where the main characters of the Russian stories got to are China, Hong Kong (then an English colony), Xinjiang Province, Manchurian taiga, Mongolia. The collection combines the cultures of China, Russia, Mongolia, Egypt, the peoples of Manchuria, etc. As E. G. Ivashchenko noted, "The stars of Manchuria" by Haydock "synthesize the culture of the West and the East" ^{[1, p. 107]}.

In the Stars of Manchuria, Chinese culture is mainly reflected through elements of Buddhism and Taoism, which make up the mysterious world of the Celestial Empire. In the collection, the story "Three Misfires" (1932) attracts great attention of readers: soldier Grzhebin, a volunteer of the Russian detachment of the Chinese militarist, embittered because he did not get drinking water in a Chinese Buddhist temple, shot three times at a "thoughtful, mournful-faced" statue ^{[2, p. 54]} Buddhas, and all three attempts misfired. After that, Grzhebin, because of his "senseless blasphemy" ^{[2, p. 54]}, died three times in different ways. The plot of this story can be explained by the Buddhist concept of "karma" — the universal law of cause and effect. Haydock stated this in his autobiographical essay: "there is no phenomenon without a cause, and what the cause is, so is the effect" ^{[3, p. 55]}. Grzhebin blasphemed the Buddha because of his impatience and frivolity. When the first shot misfired, he tried to fire a second and a third time. He did not believe that the Buddha statue could survive when everything around was already destroyed. After the first suicide, Grzhebin miraculously appeared in front of the main character and the sergeant, but the main character was sure that the Grzhebin who was in front of them had already died, since according to the stories of the inhabitants of the Celestial Empire, dead people "carry the breath of the otherworldly everywhere with them, and smiles die in their presence" ^{[2, p. 57]}. The souls of the dead, "according to the beliefs of the Chinese, went to the disposal of unknown lords of heaven or earth, depending on merit" ^{[2, p. 57]}. Obviously, Grzhebin, who was present in the sergeant's room, could not get to the lord of the sky. He was executed for blasphemous behavior, and he still faces two deaths for the other two misfires. We can see a similar plot in Haydock's later published story "Emergency at the post № 2" (<1 9 9 4>): The main character, Private Schwalbach, disfigured a Buddhist statue, as a result of which he could not move and soon died on the spot ^{[4, pp. 64-66]}. From here we can note Haydock's acceptance and strict observance of the universal law of cause and effect. The writer also stressed: "no one can repeal this law, therefore, repentant sinners <...> will receive in any case a full measure of retribution" ^{[3, p. 54]}.

In The Stars of Manchuria, the story "The Manchurian Princess" (1930) is filled with oriental flavor. When the main character of the story, the artist Bagrov, was painting on a hill, he saw the ghost of his wife of the previous circle of life rebirths — "girls in the ancient dress of princesses of the Qing dynasty [1616-1912 — L. G.]" ^{[2, p. 76]}, which refreshed his memory of the previous rebirth: he was then Yashka Bagr, the chieftain of a gang of robbers. The Manchu princess he captured fell in love with him, saved him from the Manchus, and after twelve years they lived together in the taiga, hunting. But such a happy life with mutual love ended with the fact that one day they were killed by a terrible bear. This story reflects the Buddhist concepts of samsara and reincarnation, according to which a person does not disappear from the world at all, after death he can be reborn, his favorable or unfavorable rebirth is decided taking into account lifetime actions (the law of "karma") ^{[5, p. 601]}. Haydock explained in his oral history that these concepts mean that "man has lived on Earth hundreds of thousands of times, that the human soul is immortal. She does not die in physical death. Passing into another world, she returns to Earth again, and, being born in a new body, begins the next life" ^{[3, p. 55]}. It was the love for the Manchurian princess, preserved secretly and subconsciously until now, that helped Bagrov remember the previous rebirth.

At the end of the story "The Manchurian Princess", Bagrov, who restored the memory of the previous rebirth, said that in order to immediately meet with the Manchurian princess, he wanted to commit suicide, but he was afraid that he would commit suicide "before the Creator of the Universe, and as punishment, centuries will fall between us again [Bagrov and the Manchurian Princess — L. G.]" ^{[2, p. 86]}. Therefore, with the help of his Chinese friends, he became a Taoist monk, living out the rest of his life as a hermit and waiting to meet the Manchurian princess after death. In the monastery, he could "unleash all the beasts of his spirit on himself: the longing of a cultured person living in the wilderness, the lack of opportunity to practice art and read, and, finally, autosuggestion" ^{[2, p. 86]}. All three world religions (Buddhism, Christianity and Islam) consider suicide as a crime. According to these religions, people who commit suicide will be severely punished. Bagrov's statement and behavior reflect Haydock's idea that one should follow the laws of nature and not go against them in order to achieve a certain goal. "In China, the hermit lifestyle goes back to the highest Taoist value of "non—action" - contemplative passivity" ^{[6, p. 119]}. With the help of seclusion, a person can move away from the hustle and bustle of the world and focus on self-contemplation.

In the story "Miami" (1931), the disbelieving Russian smuggler Kuzmin was far from the place where his wife Miami, adopted by a Chinese village, died in childbirth. Upon returning and learning of her death, he turned to a local (Chinese) medium to help him meet with her, get in touch, and talk. According to the calculations of the medium, Miami's spirit had not yet left the house and the medium made it so that Miami's spirit entered his body, spoke to Kuzmin and predicted death, and five days after Kuzmin also dies, Kuzmin and Miami will meet. Like Bagrov, who dreamed of meeting his wife from the story "The Manchurian Princess", Kuzmin, after receiving a fatal bullet wound, already being in the hospital, calculated the remaining time of his life. At the end of the story, exactly on the fifth day Kuzmin died. According to Buddhist ideas, the dead do not immediately leave the world and are reborn: they pass into an intermediate state of "bardo" between death and the next rebirth, which lasts no longer than forty-nine days ^{[7, pp. 81-82]}. Miami's prediction and the finale of this story also reflect the Buddhist line — "predestination, the inevitability of events" ^{[8, p. 61]}: unlike Christianity, which emphasizes human free will, Buddhism believes that a person has a hidden and inevitable life path.

Unlike the above-mentioned stories, Haydock gave the story "The Temple of Dreams" (1932) a flavor of other cultures. In this story, Kostretsov accidentally discovered an image of an ibis on a stone in a deserted area, and immediately associated it with the ancient Egyptian god of the Moon and wisdom, Thoth, who is "the husband of the divine Maat... The Greeks identified him with Hermes Trismegistus" ^{[2, p. 117]}. The main character, Ensign Ryazantsev and Kostretsov decided to stay and conduct research, and they found a Temple of Dreams on the hill. In the story "Something" (1931) from the "Stars of Manchuria", while on an expedition, millionaire Stims told a companion, a Russian shooter, that he saw a woman who "had a fiery red robe and a headdress of ostrich feathers on her head" ^{[2, p. 68]}, and decided to continue looking for Something. It is worth noting that the ostrich feather serves as a symbol of the goddess of truth and justice of ancient Egypt, the wife of Thoth Maat ^{[9, p. 269]}. These two mythological figures aroused the passion of the heroes of the stories for research, stimulated them to search for the secret and unknown. Haydock himself, according to reports, has never been to Egypt in his entire life. He was fascinated not only by the culture of the country where he emigrated, but was also interested in the culture of other distant countries. The writer added various cultural details to his works so that multiculturalism was vividly reflected in the texts. In the story "Something", Stims and his servant called the Russian shooter Ilya by another name, "Elia". We can associate Elijah with the biblical prophet Elijah, whose name in Hebrew is "Elijah" ^{[10, p. 56]}. Ilya's disagreement with Stims' opinion and their fight portends that Stims will not find Something, but, most likely, like previous adventurers, will fall into error.

In the collection "Stars of Manchuria", Haydock mentioned Baron Ungern von Sternberg many times (e.g., "The Madness of the Yellow Deserts", "Something", "Temple of Dreams", "Black Tent", "Dogs Howl"), who led "crazy fighters to Urga [now Ulaanbaatar — L. G.] — to restore Genghis Khan's great state" ^{[2, p. 32]}, which proves the writer's fascination with this bright personality of the first third of the XX century. In addition, Haydock also described Mongolian culture in his works. For example, in the story "Dogs Howl" (1929), the old Mongol Tai-Murza heard the howling of dogs, worried about his fellows who went on a robbery, he lit incense in front of the gods. He explained to the main character: "Dogs howl — death walks on the steppe" ^{[2, p. 168]}. Burning incense is a Buddhist rite of making wishes, which the Mongols believe in. When the fellows successfully returned, they found a "mug with a rubber tube and a tip" in the loot at the thieves' dinner ^{[2, p. 169]}. The Mongols could not figure out this mug for a long time, they considered it the god of childbirth. The fight took place at dinner, as two guys wanted to take this "god" with them out of the loot. In Buddhism, there is a goddess Guan-yin, who gives children. Here we can note that Buddhism is deeply perceived in Mongolian culture and the representation of ordinary Mongols. Childbirth is important in the Mongolian tradition.

In the short story "The Path" (1931), Haydock also described the topic of childbirth. In the Manchurian taiga, the nomadic Solons (a subgroup of the Evenks living in Manchuria — now northeast China) have such a "philosophy": "The clan must have many, many small people so that they fill the camp, grow up and become strong hunters… Therefore, only mothers are honored" ^{[2, p. 161]}. This is typical for nomadic peoples, whose descendants serve as an important provision of living conditions and have a decisive influence on the future.

Russian culture is reflected in many details in the "Stars of Manchuria". So, the nicknames of the heroes are mentioned in the stories: Yashka Bagor, Vaska Burn Your Heels, Senka Oblique, Mitka Golovotyap, Ruff White Legs and Pockmarked Amatun. Nicknames are often used in Russian folklore, figuratively informing about the appearance of the characters and their character, replacing the names. Russian Russians' ability to fix features "in a vivid and figurative word or expression" is responsible for the appearance of nicknames, and they "make up a significant layer in the folk poetic work of the Russian people" ^{[11, pp. 140, 153]}. Russian Russian songs (folk and author's songs) are sung in the collection, for example, in the story "Three Misfires", vacationing volunteer soldiers of the Russian detachment sang: "What are you crying about, / What are you crying about..." ^{[2, p. 55]} This reinforces the sad, depressed mood of the soldiers after Grzhebin's first death due to blasphemy against the Buddha and foreshadows a tragic continuation of the story — Grzhebin is waiting for two more deaths. In the story "The Manchurian Princess" Bagrov, being the chieftain of the robbers in the previous rebirth, sang before the battle with the Manchus: "Eh-ma! Wow! Wow! / Like a young girl / She went to get honey early in the morning..." ^{[2, p. 82-83]}, and he was joined by a "rabble raging before the end" ^{[2, p. 83]}. His song, on the one hand, serves to raise the morale of the gang, and on the other hand, indicates despair in front of strong enemies. In the story "The Path", instead of a detailed description, Haydock used a Russian song based on the words of the poet N. A. Nekrasov: "Only high rye knows / How they got along..." ^{[2, p. 162]}, hinting at a secret affair between Agnivtsev and a woman from the Solonov Turpi tribe, who was later hated by Marie, who sympathized with Agnivtsev. Russian Russian emigrant writer Haydock added elements of Russian culture to his works to express longing for the country where he lived in his youth, where Russian songs play a hinting role for the development of the plot.

Haydock's life and work were fatefully influenced by his teacher, artist and theosophist N. K. Roerich, who in the preface to the collection "Stars of Manchuria" noted that "these stories, first of all, are deepened by the quality of persuasiveness, this rare difference peculiar only to something really experienced, felt" ^{[2, c. 31]}. Of course, the stories in this collection are based on the historical background experienced by Haydock himself. For example, the plot of the story "Three Misfires" takes place in the Russian detachment of the Chinese militarist Zhang Zongchang, one of the leaders of the Fengtian clique during the era of militarists in China (1916-1928); in the story "Temple of Dreams", the main character, who escaped from the concentration camp of B. V. Annenkov's troops, dreamed of A. V. Kolchak, B. V. Annenkov, Baron Ungern von Sternberg — prominent figures of the White Movement (1917-1922). In addition to the real historical background, the writer simultaneously added details of various cultures to the stories in the collection "Stars of Manchuria". On the one hand, the multicultural stories are fascinating, like a game of glass in a kaleidoscope. On the other hand, it is these cultural details that contribute to the development of the plot of the works. So, it was the law of karma that punished Grzhebin, who committed blasphemy, with suicide in the story "Three Misfires"; in the story "The Manchurian Princess" Bagrov saw the ghost of his wife of a previous rebirth and remembered the whole story; in the stories "Three Misfires", "The Manchurian Princess" and "The Path" songs, which reflect Russian culture, suggested further continuation stories. It is worth noting that magical realism arose when Haydock had just begun his creative career in the 1920s. In the collection, the multicultural phenomenon gives myth—making properties to stories with "the presence of specific and recognizable features of historical reality" - "an integral feature of magical realism" ^{[12, stb. 491]}. Such a phenomenon affects the destinies of heroes and subordinates them to itself. In the works, the boundaries between the real and the unreal are blurred: both the characters and the readers cannot separate them in the world created by the writer.

In conclusion, we note that the dominant feature of Haydock's works is the phenomenon of multiculturalism: the writer integrates elements of cultures of different peoples of Asia and Europe into his stories, including stories from the Bible, which shows his extensive knowledge. This creates expressiveness, enriches the storyline and makes the stories fascinating. Haydock uses the method of realism in his description, combines it with multiculturalism and thus creates a kind of prose, like magical realism.