Studia Litterarum Studia Litterarum 2500-4247 IWL RAS https://doi.org/10.22455/2500-4247-2026-11-2-40-61 Research Article Articles Translation and Reception of Foreign Studies on Mikhail Bakhtin’s Legacy in China Wang Hongyuan red@studlit.ru June 25, 2026 2026 February 13, 2025 The article is devoted to the study of the reception of foreign Bakhtinian research in the Chinese academic community. The term “foreign” refers to research conducted in countries other than China and Russia. In the second half of the 20th century, Bakhtin’s theories, such as dialogism, polyphony, and the carnival, rapidly gained popularity in the international academic community, becoming important tools for analyzing the novel, culture, and social critique. Chinese Bakhtinian studies also underwent rapid development over the past forty years, with the translation of foreign research and continuous dialogue with foreign scholars playing an important role in this process. This article examines the general trends and features of foreign Bakhtinian studies from the perspective of Chinese scholars, explores translated works of foreign Bakhtinians in China, and analyzes the significance and challenges of this intercultural theoretical dialogue. Various translation projects, on the one hand, contributed to the systematic understanding of Bakhtin’s legacy, and on the other, opened up opportunities for Chinese scholars not only to familiarize themselves with the interpretations of Bakhtin’s theories offered by scholars from different countries (the USA, France, the UK, Japan, etc.), but also, through the process of borrowing these ideas, to seek innovative approaches. This enabled them to construct their own theoretical framework based on the multifaceted nature of Bakhtin’s legacy. M.M. Bakhtin Bakhtinian studies dialogism translation intercultural dialogue Copyright © 2026, IWL RAS 2026 1. 1 Ling, Jianhou. “Teoriia romana Bakhtina: kontekst, kliuch i osobennosti” [“Bakhtin’s Theory of the Novel: Context, Clue, and Features”]. Sotsial'no-nauchnaia fronta [Social Science Front], no. 5, 2019, pp. 188–197. (In Chinese) 2. 2 Ling, Jianhou. Filosofskie idei Bakhtina i metody tekstovogo analiza [Philosophical Ideas of Bakhtin and Methods of Textual Analysis]. Beijing, Peking University Publ., 2007. 314 p. (In Chinese) 3. 3 Liu, Kang. Shum dialoga — teorii kul'turnykh transformatsii Bakhtina [The Noise of Dialogue — Bakhtin’s Theories of Cultural Transformations]. Beijing, Renmin University of China Publ., 1995. 260 p. (In Chinese) 4. 4 Lo, Yirong. Na puti k dialogu [On the Way to Dialogue]. Beijing, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences Publ., 2006. 419 p. (In Chinese) 5. 5 Mei, Lan. “Obzor zarubezhnykh issledovanii Bakhtina” [“Overview of Foreign Research on Bakhtin”]. Issledovaniia zarubezhnoi literatury [Studies of Foreign Literature], no. 4, 2001, pp. 117–121. (In Chinese) 6. 6 Mu, Ye. “Vzgliad na zarubezhnye issledovaniia Bakhtina” [“A View on Foreign Research on Bakhtin”]. Teoriia literatury i kritika [Theory of Literature and Criticism], no. 4, 1999, pp. 128–132. (In Chinese) 7. 7 Qian, Zhongwen. “‘Polifonicheskii roman’ i ego teoreticheskie problemy — odin iz aspektov teorii povestvovaniia Bakhtina” [“‘Polyphonic Novel’ and Its Theoretical 8. Problems — One Aspect of Bakhtin’s Narrative Theory”]. Issledovaniia teorii literatury [Studies in the Theory of Literature], no. 4, 1983, pp. 27–37. (In Chinese) 9. 8 Xia, Zhongyi. “‘Zapiski iz podpol’ia’ Dostoevskogo i problema polifonicheskoi struktury romana” [“‘Notes from Underground’ by Dostoevsky and the Problem of the 10. Polyphonic Structure of the Novel”]. Vsemirnaia literatura [World Literature], no. 4, 1982, pp. 105–115. (In Chinese) 11. 9 Zeng, Jun. Issledovanie vliianiia Bakhtina na sovremennuiu zapadnuiu literaturnuiu teoriiu [Study of Bakhtin’s Influence on Contemporary Western Literary Theory]. Beijing, Social Science Publ., 2021. 358 p. (In Chinese) 12. 10 Zeng, Jun. Polifoniia vospriiatiia: issledovanie kitaiskoi istorii vospriiatiia Bakhtina [Polyphony of Perception: A Study of the Chinese History of Bakhtin’s Reception]. Guilin, Guangxi Pedagogical University Publ., 2004. 254 p. (In Chinese) 13.