On October 22, Anastasia Podareva (Chinese name: 唐曦兰 Táng Xīlán) arrived to Pujiang from Hangzhou to visit the village of Xinguang, Yudao Township, where she started her own business, and seized the opportunity to enjoy the seasonal colors and scenery in the village of Songxi, Baima Town.

Anastasia was born in 1995 in the Russian countryside. Coming from a country of poets, she came into contact with Chinese poetry seven years ago when she first arrived in China. Five years ago, destiny tied her with Jinhua, and she wrote herself and her story along with the local countryside into a poem. In the poem, “Jinhua Villages,” she writes: “Here, I’m a guest, but I’ll be longing to meet you again for life.”

Anastasia is a third-year MA student of theory of art at Zhejiang Sci-Tech University. She picked her Chinese name when she came to China seven years ago, which means “orchid in full bloom at the first rays of morning sun.” After graduating from high school in 2013, she went to Changchun, Jilin, to study Chinese and a year later, she was enrolled in a BA program in Chinese at ZSTU.

“As a first year student, I started to take classes with Chinese students, and I was the only foreigner in my class. Since the very beginning, I came into contact with ancient Chinese literature and very difficult reading, such as Classics of Poetry and Annals of Warring States.” Anastasia made very rapid progress, and over the years she has become a member of the Hangzhou West Lake Poetry Association and an international spokesperson for the town of poetry, Pujiang.

This time, she has just returned from a poetry festival in Hainan where she won another prize, adding to a list of many others. On this trip to Pujiang, Anastasia planned to visit the village of Xinguang, where she did her internship and launched her own business.

“In the spring of 2019, I came to Xinguang and became an international maker at Nianjiu Jianli [the largest existing single ancient building in Pujiang].” Anastasia said that her acquaintance with the Jinhua countryside originated from Jinhua Homestay, of which she was a participant in 2017. Starting from the village of Suoyuan, Jindong District, she fell in love with the rural areas of Jinhua, Lanxi, Yiwu, Pujiang, and Wuyi. A “rural maker” is Anastasia’s status in the village of Xinguang. And she has also become the spokesperson of the village’s makers. “Here, many young people have become makers, but in such an ordinary trend, I am a special one. I’m a girl from the Russian countryside, so I have a particular preference for the countryside.”

During her seven years in China, Anastasia has been to many rural places, and her favorite is Pujiang. One particular reason is the affinity between Pujiang and poetry. “In Pujiang, there is still a tradition of writing poetry and painting. Even farmers can write poetry. After work, I like to walk around the countryside to see and enjoy such a feeling.” This time, Anastasia paid a special visit to Songxi, a village between the mountains where everyone talks poetry and makes paintings. There, in a farmer’s studio, she met and exchanged views and ideas with local poets, painters and Kunqu Opera lovers of the Songxi Study Association.

Anastasia would very much like to establish a Russian pavilion in the countryside of Jinhua. A location where she could live, write poetry, and strive “to make poetry a bridge between my home and others, and to make the foreign land become one’s home.” (By Wang Lei, translated by Marco Lovisetto, edited by Mariam Ayad)

       俄罗斯姑娘 在浦江农村当创客

      10月22日，俄罗斯姑娘唐曦兰从杭州回到曾经创业的浦江县虞宅乡新光村，又趁着秋色去“小杭州”白马镇嵩溪村。

      1995年出生在俄罗斯农村的唐曦兰说，俄罗斯有一句话流传甚广。”这是一个诗歌的国度。可是，来到中国的7年却让她爱上了中国诗词。特别是5年前与金华结缘，她把自己和金华农村都写进了诗歌里。正如这首《金华乡间》：“此处，我是客人，可是一生渴望与你重逢。”

     唐曦兰是浙江理工大学艺术学理论专业的研三学生，这个中国名字是她7年前来到中国时自己取的，意思是“大唐晨曦中盛开的兰花”。

     2013年，高中毕业的她独自到吉林长春学习汉语，一年后收到了浙江理工大学汉语言专业的本科录取通知书。

     “大一时，我就开始和中国学生一起上课，班里就我一个外国人。第一堂课，我就接触到了中国古代文学，《诗经》《战国策》，感觉特别难。”不过，唐曦兰的进步很快。

    10月22日，刚从海南第二届博鳌国际诗歌节颁奖典礼归来的唐曦兰，带着“年度新锐奖”的荣誉，回到浦江。

此行，唐曦兰最主要的目的地是曾经两度实习创业的新光村。

   “2019年春天，我来到新光村，成为廿玖间里的国际创客。”唐曦兰说，自己与金华农村的结识源于2017年的“海外名校学子走进金华古村落”活动，从金东区琐园村出发，她便爱上了金华的农村，兰溪、义乌、浦江、武义，她行走在乡间小道上，感受最真实的中国。农村创客，是她在新光村的身份，她也成了乡村创客们的“乡村代言人”。

    “在这里，不少年轻人在当创客，而我是一个特别的‘普通存在’。”

    “我是从俄罗斯农村走出来的女孩，所以我特别偏爱农村。”

     在中国求学7年，唐曦兰到过很多中国农村，最后选择浦江，有一个很重要的原因是这里有许多诗人。“在浦江，至今保留着写诗作画的传统，连农民都会写诗。工作之余，我喜欢到周边农村走走看看。”

    唐曦兰此次特意去探访的嵩溪村，就是个“人人都会谈诗作画”的山村。在嵩溪村的农民书屋里，她与嵩溪学社的农民诗人、画家、昆曲爱好者们交流，没有任何障碍。

唐曦兰说，她想在金华农村建一个“俄罗斯馆”，在这里生活、写诗、奋斗，“让诗歌成为一座桥梁，架起我的故乡与他乡的桥梁，让他乡成为故乡。”(记者 汪蕾)