Linguist Aleksei Rodionov is the director of the Confucius Institute at St. Petersburg State University and the associate director at the Department of Oriental Studies. His research interests focus on modern Chinese literature as well as literary exchanges between China and Russia. Major publications: Handbook for Chinese Literary History; Lao She and China: Nationality in 20th Century Literature; Ba Jin's Heritage in Russia; Chinese Literature’s Stepping Out: the Dissemination of Contemporary Chinese Fictions and Essays in Russia after the Dissolution of the Soviet Union; etc.