China and the West

Dostoyevsky, Fyodor. Crime and punishment in China. [Zui yu fa].
Han Ruihui : Many modern Russian literary works are well-known and red in Chine, but some Russian literary works are not well accepted by China readers. Fyodor Dostoyevsky's novels, especially his Crime and punishment are among those works. The readers in China have less interest in Dostoyevsky compared with other Russian writers such as Pushkin, Termotov, Gogol, Turgeev, Tolstoy and Chekhov.
There are many differences between China and Russia because of the factors such as environments, climates, population composition, econimcs, international circumstance, religious believes and customs. There are also many similarities between China and Russia. They both have the tradition emphasis on spirit, morality and ideal. The rich theories about ethics is the same characteristic of both. The aesthetics of the two countries are different from each other, Chinese poet emphasizes the beauty come from the moderate, on the contrary, Russian poet pursues for the wild spirit and the narrative is emphasized.
In the novel Crime and punishment, the punishment incurred by the crime is not the focus, on the contrary, the course of confession and atoning for the crime is emphasized the most. In the novel, Chinese readers can not find the plot of retribution for the crime the protagonist commits.
The common readers of China would not understand Russian orthodoxy culture background, so they qould not understand the relation between the suffering and redemption in Dostoyevsky's works. The consciousness of suffering and tragedy, focus on the eternity are not understood. That is why Dostoyevsky's works is not popular in China. The consciousness of suffering and tragic endings in the works of his contemporary writers are less than that in Dostoyevsky's works.
In Crime and punishment, the protagonist does not believe he is guilty, because the old woman must die for her usurious lend. Dostoyevsky's explanation for the protagonist's crime is that his heart is away from God. So only the punishment can bring the peace and comfort for him.
Dostoyevsky's works believe that the unfortunate of human being is not because of the circumstance but the crime human being committed. The effective way to gain the happiness is through the suffering and hardship of redemption. All those are not understood by common China readers because of the cultural and historical background.
In the end of the 1970s China began to take a more opening attitude toward the foreign. So the literary criticism about Dostoyevsky changed accordingly. In many articles he was described asw one humanitarian writer and philosopher. But for many China readers, he was still strange. One of the reason for that phenomenon was that the economy-oriented society in China prevailed. The political propaganda in the Great Cultural Revolution is also one factor that causes the strangeness of Dostoyevsky's works to China readers.