In the lobby of a school in downtown Moscow, Nina Izmaillovana
gazes at a Chinese couplet hanging from a wall which hails spring
flowers and prays for blessings. She prays for luck in finding the
Chinese boyfriend whom she fell in love with half a century
ago.
"We parted in tears at the railway station and I just couldn't
help crying," Izmaillovana said, recalling the good days she shared
with the Chinese weight-lifter when she worked as an interpreter
for a Chinese sports team training in the former Soviet Union.
After the training ended, the separated pair shared their
feelings of joy and sadness through letters and photographs.
Izmaillovana did not have an opportunity to work in China and
meet her lover again, as bilateral relations between the two
countries experienced a downturn in the late 1950s.
"I have kept his pictures since then and am still waiting for
any word about him," said the 76-year-old secondary school teacher,
who is yearning for her dream to come true, with the launch of the
Year of China in Russia, a reciprocal event to the Year of Russia
in China last year.
Maya Mogulina, also a teacher at the Russian school which has
been teaching Chinese for five decades, envies her students for
their better text books with Chinese nursery rhymes and ancient
poems.
"After my graduation in 1965, I didn't have a chance to speak
Chinese with a native Chinese speaker face to face. The first such
opportunity came eight years later when I met a Chinese immigrant
in Indonesia," Maya said.
Zoya Pliaguhina, another teacher at the school, was luckier.
After graduating in the early 1990s, she won a chance to receive
further education in eastern China's Anhui Province.
Teaching Chinese with slide shows, Zoya is now proud of her
students.
"China has the Great Wall, and many beautiful flowers," is how
one of her grade-one students described China in fluent
Chinese.
"Time changes, but our love for China, and for Chinese, has
never changed in the last 50 years," Izmaillovana said, looking at
the happy and playful boys and girls.
(China Daily March 27, 2007)
