Published on: 2026-05-21
Source: People’s Republic of China in Russian –
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Moscow, May 21 /Sina/ — Russian artist Anna Donchenko has dedicated 20 years to studying and teaching Chinese ink painting. Today, she is one of the few specialists in Russia who not only master this art but also actively popularize it.
“I hope to continue drawing for the rest of my life and to inspire more and more people to be interested in China. That would be the most important thing for me,” she said.
For Anna, Chinese painting is not just work, but a spiritual connection with China that originated back in her childhood. It all began during her school years with visits to the State Museum of the East in Moscow. “I was enchanted,” she recalls. “I kept returning again and again to study the paintings properly.”
Her first trip to China took place in 2007. Anna returned with a suitcase full of books on calligraphy and painting, brushes, and mineral pigments. In 2014, she enrolled in the Chinese Academy of Arts in the city of Hangzhou, where she studied ink painting in detail. During her years of study, Anna traveled around half the country, and she was especially impressed by the Chinese landscapes.
“What touches me most in Chinese painting is how it conveys mood and rhythm, how it builds a connection between man and nature. Here it is important not the closeness to nature, but the expression of the artist’s inner state,” she noted.
Anna Donchenko is widely known by the Chinese name Dun Qing. “Dun means winter, a reminder of the long cold winter of my homeland. Qing means youth and vital energy, and Guo (country) expresses my wishes for Russia,” the artist explained.
Anna is currently working as a research fellow at the Center for the Study of Chinese Culture at the Institute of China and Contemporary Asia of the Russian Academy of Sciences.
According to her, painting with ink changed her perception of the world. “The philosophy of harmony between man and nature, embodied in Chinese painting, is not just an artistic technique, but a special way of perceiving and accepting life,” she says. “I have been studying Chinese painting for 20 years and have taught it for many years. The artistic image that this painting carries evokes a response in people from very different cultures.”
In her painting, the artist depicts Russian landscapes with wooden huts and churches, but uses the means of Chinese ink painting. China and Russia exist as a single whole in these works.
Three days a week she teaches classes at the Chinese Cultural Center in Moscow. Her students learn to depict plum blossoms, paint landscapes, and draw the kurma — a symbol of luck in China. “Chinese painting can convey emotions amazingly simply and accurately. It’s a completely new perspective on the world,” said one of her students Anastasia Smirnova.
For more than 20 years, A. Donchenko has been a participant and organizer of over 30 exhibitions in Russia and China. In April 2026, her latest exhibition took place in Moscow, which was accompanied by a master class on the opening day. “Standing in front of these paintings, people feel as if all earthly worries fall away. This is the special charm of Chinese painting,” noted the exhibition curator Yulia Zharkova.
Anna hopes that thanks to the active development of humanitarian and cultural exchanges within the framework of the Cross Years of Education between China and Russia, more people will discover for themselves the traditional Chinese art of ink painting.
“Teaching Chinese ink painting is not just about transferring professional skills,” the artist is convinced. “It’s about passing on the love that you cherish in your heart. I want people to learn to see beauty just like I once did.” –0–
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