From 27th to 30th December, 2019, Shanghai University of Foreign Languages hosted the Forum of Young Writers of Russia and China. Vladimir Tolstoy, presidential advisor for cultural affairs, Aleksandr Shmanevsky, RF Consul General in Shanghai, Li Jingjie, Vice-Chairman of Writers’ Society of China, took part in the opening of the event.

The organizer of the forum from Russia was Oleg Bavykin, the chairman of the Foreign Commission of the Writers’ Society of Russia, from the People’s Republic of China - Zheng Tiwu, the director of the Institute of World Literature, Shanghai University of World Literature, professor, doctor of philological sciences. The guest of honor of the forum was Yuri Kozlov, a famous Russian writer, co-chair of the Writers’ Society of Russia, editor-in-chief of the Roman-Gazeta journal.

The Russian delegation at the forum was represented by writers and poets from different cities and regions: Yuri Lunin (Moscow Region), Diana Daskalitsa (Crimea), Dmitry Evdokimov (Nizhny Novgorod), Ellina Savchenko (Krasnodar), Sergey Murashov (Arkhangelsk Region), Evgenia Dekina and Alyona Belousenko (Moscow), Dmitry Lagutin (Bryansk), Irina Ivannikova (Ryazan), Ekaterina Ignatieva and Roman Kruglov (St. Petersburg). Anna Timakova, head of the Department of Literature and Methods of Teaching Literature at Penza State University participated in the forum as a literary scholar and critic.

The grand opening of the forum was followed by plenary meetings. Russian and Chinese writers made presentations, exchanged views on the modern literary processes in Russia and China. The reports of the forum participants and a selection of their works had been translated and published in advance, and simultaneous interpreters worked at the event.

Also within the framework of the forum, a presentation of the serious work by Professor Zheng Tiwu was made: a two-volume collection of his translations of works by poets of the Silver Age “Russian Poetry of the Silver Age”.

The next day of the forum continued in the cultural center of SiNan GongGuan. Zheng Tiwu, Yang Qixiang (China), Anna Timakova (Penza) and Roman Kruglov (St. Petersburg) met with readers and answered their questions about the development of Russian and Chinese literature. The events were followed by a poetic evening of Russian and Chinese poetry, held at the Shanghai Writers' Society. The work of the forum on the final day ended with a rich cultural programme in the ancient village of Nan Xiang.

The event attracted special attention of the media, as it was admitted to be very important for the culture and foreign policy of both countries.