Social and Speech Portraiting as a Method for Studying Heritage Russian: Elderly Russian Emigrants in Harbin and their Descendants

Abstract

This article aims to describe the Russian heritage speakers in Harbin, elderly emigrants and their descendants, using the social and speech portraiting method. The Russian diaspora in China arose in the late 19th century when the Chinese-Eastern railway was built – a joint Russian-Chinese project. After 1952, a mass exodus of the Russian population from China began: repatriation or emigration to Australia, the USA and Brazil. In the early 21st century, less than ten members of the Russian diaspora remained in Harbin. The specific nature of the Russian emigrant language in Harbin was described through the social and speech portraiting of the heritage speakers’ identities. This method may be used to analyze the language of emigrants in different countries, to reveal the unique and universal processes in it. Additionally, the article describes strategies and tactics for gathering language material from elderly informants.