By staff reporter QIU JIANGHONG

It was 7:00 o'clock in Beijing on a bitter cold January morning when the elderly man arrived at the China Federation of Literary and Art Circles office. It was the day that members of the China Society for Folk Literature and Art were to travel to Weifang City, Shandong Province to attend the meeting promoting the Folk Culture Relics Salvage Project for Chinese New Year Wood Engravings. The yard was very quiet as the man, dressed in a down greatcoat, hat and gloves, stamped his feet to keep out the cold. Sheltering from the icy wind amid several cars, bag draped across his chest, he looked for all the world like a car park attendant.

At 7:30 it became light, and other people began to arrive. Seeing this man was not Chinese, someone hailed him in English: "Hello! Are you going to Shandong too?" His reply, in perfect Chinese: "Yes. My name is Li Fuqing, and I am going to Weifang with you."

It was then that someone recognized this man as winner of the 2nd Chinese Language and Culture Friendship Awards held at the Great Hall of the People. Established in 1999 by the Ministry of Education, this award is presented to international friends who have made outstanding contributions to Chinese teaching, Sinological research, and dissemination of Chinese culture. This year there were six winners: from Russia, Italy, America, South Korea, France and the Philippines. Russian Boris L. Riftin, born in 1932, headed them.

On Riftin's calling card are his Chinese name, Li Fuqing, and various other titles: academician of the Russian Academy of Science; Chinese Ph.D; and Chief researcher at the World Literature Institute, Russian Academy of Science. More than half of this 70-year-old man's life has been devoted to research on Chinese culture. This was his 17th trip to China..

Riftin studied under famous sinologist B. Alexeev (1881-1951). The Chinese Classical works of literature that first drew him to Chinese culture were the Shi Ji (Records of the Historian) and Liao Zhai Zhi Yi (Strange Tales from a Lonely Studio) translated by Alexeev. Sad to say, the great master died just a few months after starting to teach Boris, but his pupil decided to carry on his teacher's cause. He continued Alexeev's research into Chinese culture and published part of his works posthumously.

Riftin came to China for the first time in 1959. He soon learned to speak excellent Chinese and discovered in himself an unexpected bent for Chinese folk literature and art. Captivated by folk tales and fables, his overriding passion was, and still is, the Chinese New Year picture genre of Chinese folk art.

Riftin has been all over China seeking out the main areas where New Year pictures are produced. He has also made several trips to museums in Europe and Asia to see collections dating back to the Ming (1368-1644) and Qing 1644-1911) dynasties, and the Republican (1912-1949) period. These he found in Russia, Germany, Denmark, Sweden, Britain, France, the Czech Republic, Poland and Japan.

"Most of these trips are at my own expenses, but as my income is barely 100 US dollars a month, I take trains rather than fly," says Riftin, adding, "Accommodation is often a problem. I was once packed into a tiny room with five other people in a dock in Stockholm for a whole week." But to Boris, the chance to get to see collections of Chinese New Year pictures more than compensates for a little discomfort.

"I have not always been lucky. Sometimes it takes several visits to the same place to find what it is I actually want to see. I once visited a museum of Far Eastern arts in Germany three times before locating the exhibits that interested me. I have also been obliged to borrow money in order to pay the 20 US dollars charged by some museums to see picture slides," says Boris.

After several years' hard work, Boris Riftin now knows how collections of Chinese New Year pictures are distributed around the world. He informs us: "There are four museums in St. Petersburg with collections of Chinese New Year pictures, with 4,000 pieces at the Winter Palace Museum, 500 at the Museum of Folk Arts, 300 (from 1896 to 1897) at the Geography Institute, and 100 (dating from 1904) at the municipal museum. In Moscow, the Oriental Art Museum has a collection of over 500 pieces, and the Aleksander Pushkin Sculpture Museum has 40 fantastic works predating 1895. There are more than 200 individual pieces in three Siberian cities. In Japan, there is a huge collection at the Hiroshima Folk Arts Museum and one comprising more than 100 pieces at Waseda University. In Europe, the Czech Folk Art Museum has since the end of the 19th century had a collection of more than 700 pieces, and Denmark has collections from the Wanli period of the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644)."

Boris' infatuation with Chinese culture means he is a mine of information on it. He has written and published more than 30 books in Chinese, Russian, German and English covering Chinese ancient history, fables, legends, drama, poetry, and contemporary fiction. "They have proved popular," says Boris with an air of surprise, continuing, "The 8,000 copies of Selective Fineries of Chinese New Year Pictures published in Russian sold out in one month. At some museums, it had to be locked away for fear of theft."

At the invitation of the China Society for Folk Literature and Art, Riftin made an inspection tour of Yangjiafu, Weifang City, well-known for producing Chinese New Year pictures. "This has been a fruitful trip," says Riftin. "I've seen many individual works and old wood blocks."

Feng Jicai, chairman of the China Society for Folk Literature and Art, and famous contemporary writer has prevailed upon Riftin to edit A Collection of Chinese New Year Pictures in Russian and Japanese. Says Boris, "It is an honor and a pleasure for me to accept this task."