Standing under a pagoda roof at the entrance to a sprawling Chinese-themed park in Moscow, Alyona Iyevskaya was doing homework for her university. Against a backdrop of ornate pavilions, arched bridges, a pond and a statue of Confucius, a friend filmed her on a camera phone gushing about the park — in Mandarin.

站在莫斯科一个巨大的中国主题公园入口处的宝塔屋顶下，阿廖娜·伊耶夫斯卡娅正在完成她的大学作业。以雕梁画栋的亭台、拱桥、池塘和孔子塑像为背景，一位朋友用手机拍下了她滔滔不绝谈论公园的情景——全程使用的是普通话。

Ms. Iyevskaya, 19, said she chose to study the language at Moscow City University, where she is a first-year student, because she believes China is on the rise and her prospects will be better if she speaks the language. Many Moscow universities now offer similar courses.

19岁的伊耶夫斯卡娅说，她选择在莫斯科城市大学学习这门语言，因为她相信中国正在崛起，如果会说这门语言，就会拥有更好的前景。她现在是这所大学的一年级学生。莫斯科的许多高校现在都开设了类似的课程。

“Many young people want to go to China to study,” Ms. Iyevskaya said. “There are so many prospects in China,” she added. “It is so cool, and it is developing so fast.”

“许多年轻人想去中国留学，”伊耶夫斯卡娅说。“中国有很多的机会，”她还说。“它太酷了，而且发展得很快。”

In a country that until recently worshiped everything Western, something surprising has happened: China has become desirable and trendy for Russians.

在一个直到前不久还崇拜一切西方事物的国家，令人惊讶的事情发生了：中国已经成为俄罗斯人向往的时尚潮流。

Chinese cars have become a common sight on Moscow streets. Members of the Russian elite are hiring Chinese nannies to encourage their children to learn Mandarin early. The capital’s museums and performance centers are clamoring to put on Chinese exhibitions and shows.

中国汽车已成为莫斯科街头的一道常见风景。俄罗斯精英阶层开始雇佣中国保姆，以便让孩子从小学习普通话。首都的博物馆和表演中心争相举办中国的展览和演出。

莫斯科一家购物中心展示的中国汽车。中国品牌的汽车已成为莫斯科街头的一道常见风景。

“The last three years let the Russians see the East in a totally new light, not as an exotic alternative to Europe but as a mainstream direction for business, tourism and studies,” Kirill V. Babaev, the head of the Institute of China and Contemporary Asia at the Russian Academy of Sciences, said in an email.

俄罗斯科学院中国与当代亚洲研究所所长基里尔·巴巴耶夫在一封电子邮件中说，“过去三年让俄罗斯人以全新的眼光看待东方，它不再是欧洲的异国情调替代品，而是商业、旅游和研究的主流方向。”

“The Russian people are following this trend with so much interest, as if they had just discovered another planet,” he added.

他还说：“俄罗斯人民以极大的兴趣追逐这一趋势，好像他们刚刚发现了另一个星球。”

Since the Russian invasion of Ukraine, China has become the Kremlin’s best friend in public, even as some Russian officials retain a deep suspicion of Beijing’s intentions. It has provided diplomatic support and bought Russian oil and gas. China’s leader, Xi Jinping, has met with President Vladimir V. Putin in the Kremlin, both smiling warmly for the cameras. China has also helped replace Western consumer goods that Russians cannot buy because of sanctions.

自俄罗斯入侵乌克兰以来，中国已成为克里姆林宫在公开场合最好的朋友，尽管一些俄罗斯官员仍对北京的意图深表怀疑。中国提供了外交支持，并购买俄罗斯的石油和天然气。中国领导人习近平在克里姆林宫与俄罗斯总统普京会晤，两人都对着镜头热情地微笑。此外，中国还帮助俄罗斯填补了因西方制裁而无法购买的消费品空缺。

All that has fed into a growing mania for Chinese goods and culture across Russia.

所有这些都助长了俄罗斯各地掀起日益高涨的中国商品及文化追捧热潮。

In Moscow, the few public schools that offer Chinese are oversubscribed, and Mandarin is a staple not only at linguistic universities, but also at technical schools. Employment vacancies requiring Chinese have soared in recent years, according to a popular job website.

在莫斯科，为数不多开设中文课程的公立学校都出现了超额报名的现象，普通话不仅是语言大学的常设课程，也进入了工科院校的课堂。据一家知名招聘网站称，近年来要求掌握中文的职位空缺大幅增加。

莫斯科的一家旅游纪念品商店，摆放着俄罗斯总统普京（左）和中国最高领导人习近平的像。

Theater directors from China stage plays based on contemporary Chinese novels in Russian theaters that once welcomed leading Western artists. In April, a major museum in Moscow hosted an exhibition of porcelain, ceramics and other artifacts from the National Museum of China in Beijing. Books about Chinese culture are featured prominently in bookstores.

来自中国的戏剧导演在曾经接待的多是西方顶尖艺术家的俄罗斯剧院上演根据中国当代小说改编的剧目。今年4月，莫斯科一家大型博物馆举办了来自北京中国国家博物馆的瓷器、陶瓷和其他文物展览。有关中国文化的书籍在书店里摆在显眼位置。

In late January, Moscow City Hall decorated the city center to celebrate Lunar New Year, covering pedestrian streets with red lanterns and installing a giant panda hugging a Christmas tree next to Red Square.

1月下旬，莫斯科市政厅装饰了市中心以庆祝春节，在步行街上挂满了红灯笼，并在红场旁边安装了一只拥抱圣诞树的大熊猫。

Moscow’s subway laid on a red Chinese-themed train and translated its map into Chinese. The city’s billboards and state television featured Mr. Xi’s “favorite catchphrases,” (“delicious soup is made by combining different ingredients” is one), and Chinese restaurants have been sprouting in cities across Russia.

莫斯科地铁设立了一列红色的中国主题列车，并将地铁路线图翻译成了中文。该市的广告牌和国家电视台上出现了习近平“最喜欢的名言”（“和羹之美，在于合异”就是其中之一），中餐馆在俄罗斯各城市如雨后春笋般涌现。

莫斯科的一块广告牌上显示着习近平“最喜欢的名言”。

Valentin Gogol, the founder of a company that supplies nannies for members of the Russian elite, said he had been scrambling to meet ever-growing demand for Chinese speakers. Salaries now run to $5,000 per month, he said, generally high by Russian standards, and still, “The process of recruiting has been quite hard.”

瓦伦丁·果戈利是一家为俄罗斯精英阶层提供保姆服务的公司创始人，他说他一直在努力满足对中文保姆日益增长的需求。他说，对于这样的人，现在的工资达到了每月5000美元，以俄罗斯的标准来看，这已经很高了，但“招聘的过程仍然相当艰难”。

English-speaking nannies are still the most popular, he said, but Chinese-speaking ones have replaced French speakers in second place.

他说，说英语的保姆仍然是最受欢迎的，但说汉语的保姆已经取代了说法语的保姆，排在第二位。

“People now see it as an additional second language to complement English,” said Mr. Gogol, whose company is still called English Nanny.

“人们现在把中文看作补充英语的第二语言，”果戈利说。他的公司仍然叫做“英语保姆”。

Chinese cars are one increasingly visible sign of the Russian embrace of China. Cars made in China have flooded the Russian market, with more than 900,000 sold last year alone, according to Autostat, an auto market consultancy. That compared with about 115,000 in 2021.

中国汽车成为了俄罗斯青睐中国的一个日益显著的标识。汽车市场咨询公司Autostat的数据显示，中国制造的汽车已大量涌入俄罗斯市场，仅去年一年就售出逾90万辆。相比之下，2021年约为11.5万辆。

Sergei Stillavin, a Russian radio host and founder of a car blog on YouTube, used to travel around Europe to review European cars. Now almost all cars featured in his blog are Chinese.

俄罗斯电台主持人谢尔盖·斯蒂拉文是YouTube上一个汽车博客的创始人，过去，他经常在欧洲各地旅行，评论欧洲汽车。现在，他博客里几乎出现的都是中国品牌。

“BMW is still more prestigious,” he said, speaking about deeply entrenched preferences in Russia. “But I know people who switched from Porsche to Li Xiang,” a Chinese car brand now ubiquitous on Moscow’s streets.

“宝马仍然更有声望，”他在谈到俄罗斯根深蒂固的偏好时说。“但我知道有人从保时捷转向了理想。”这个中国汽车品牌如今在莫斯科街头随处可见。

在莫斯科的中国主题公园拍摄婚纱照。

While there is undoubtedly much more enthusiasm for Chinese goods, there is still a lingering longing for Western products that have become increasingly difficult to obtain in recent years.

人们对中国货无疑热情高涨，但对西方产品的渴望仍挥之不去，近年来它们越来越难买到。

Taxi drivers in Chinese cars in Moscow say they would still rather buy a German car if it were the same price. And videos have circulated on social media poking fun at Chinese cars. In one, a Russian man presents a Chinese car as a gift to his girlfriend. As soon as she sees the stylish car, her face falls.

在莫斯科，开中国车的出租车司机表示，如果价格相同，他们仍宁愿买一辆德国车。社交媒体上流传着取笑中国车的视频。在一段视频中，一名俄罗斯男子将一辆中国车作为礼物送给女友。她一看到那辆时尚的汽车，脸就沉了下来。

“I hope you are joking,” she says. “I won’t drive a Chinese one, this is not a Porsche, or a Mercedes.”

“我希望你是在开玩笑，”她说。“我不会开中国车的，这不是保时捷，也不是奔驰。”

Western branding also remains common across the Russian capital. A new elite building complex in Moscow bears aspirational London-themed names like Knightsbridge Private Park complex and Belgravia, rather than ones evoking Shanghai or Beijing. And even a Chinese business cluster near Moscow is called GreenWood.

莫斯科街头的西方品牌依然随处可见。在莫斯科，新的精英建筑群使用的是令人向往的伦敦主题的名字，比如骑士桥私人公园综合楼和贝尔格莱维亚，而不是让人想起上海或北京的名字。甚至连莫斯科附近的一个中国商业楼群也被称为“格林伍德”。

“Red Silk,” a joint Russian-Chinese movie with Chinese and Russian spies battling Japanese enemies, Chinese nationalists and their British backers on a trans-Siberian train in 1927, was a box-office disaster despite state-sponsored advertising. And only one Chinese fashion brand, Ellassay, has replaced the Western luxury boutiques that used to dominate the storefront of GUM, Red Square’s department store.

中俄合拍的电影《红丝绸》(Red Silk)讲述了中俄特工在一列横贯西伯利亚的火车上与日本敌人、中国民族主义者及其英国支持者斗智斗勇的故事。在红场的百货商场GUM，只有一个中国时尚品牌歌力思取代了曾经占据黄金铺位的西方奢侈品精品店。

莫斯科GUM百货公司的中国时装品牌歌力思专卖店。

Aleksandr Grek, a Russian magazine editor and a China enthusiast with five children, said there were generational differences in how China was viewed by the young.

俄罗斯杂志编辑亚历山大·格列克是一位有五个孩子的中国迷。他说，年轻人对中国的看法存在代际差异。

His children over 14 are still more Western-oriented, but the younger ones know little about Western culture and are infatuated with Asia, he said.

他说，他14岁以上的孩子仍然更倾向于西方文化，但更年轻的孩子对西方文化知之甚少，他们迷恋亚洲。

“They don’t see anything that is made in the United States,” said Mr. Grek, 59, sipping green tea in a Moscow cafe and talking of his younger children. “Everything that surrounds them is made in China.”

“他们看不到任何美国制造的东西，”59岁的格列克在莫斯科的一家咖啡馆里喝着绿茶，谈论着他年幼的孩子们。“他们周围的一切都是中国制造。”

Mr. Grek’s children all studied Chinese. His 14-year-old daughter speaks it fluently and will spend the next summer in China living with a local family “just like children used to go to England” to improve their English. For Mr. Grek and his family, the reasoning is simple.

格列克的孩子们都学中文。他14岁的女儿能说一口流利的中文，明年夏天她将去中国和一个当地家庭一起生活，“就像孩子们以前（为提高英语水平）去英国一样”。对格列克和他的家人来说，理由很简单。

“China is our only friend now,” he said, listing technological fields where he sees China as the world’s leader, like solar power and artificial intelligence. “And it is becoming top country in the world.”

“中国现在是我们唯一的朋友，”他说，并列出了他认为中国处于世界领先地位的科技领域，比如太阳能和人工智能。“它正在成为世界顶级强国。”

在红场自拍。自俄罗斯入侵乌克兰以来，中国已成为克里姆林宫在公开场合的好朋友。

Other Russians are more skeptical, saying that the increased interest in China was likely a temporary marriage of convenience.

也有的俄罗斯人则持怀疑态度，他们说，对中国日益增长的兴趣可能是一场暂时的“利益联姻”。

Yulia Kuznetsova, a Chinese language and culture specialist, said she remembered when learning Mandarin was considered exotic and Sinologists were a fringe group. She said she thought that the China craze would end once relations with the West improved.

中国语言和文化专家尤利娅·库兹涅佐娃说，她记得当年学习普通话曾被认为是异国情调，汉学家是一个边缘群体。她说，她认为一旦与西方的关系改善，中国热就会消退。

“Deep down nothing has changed,” she said. For Russians, Ms. Kuznetsova said, China “is a foreign culture.”

“在内心深处，什么都没有改变，”她说。库兹涅佐娃说，对俄罗斯人来说，中国“是一种异质文化”。

“Even the Arab world is much closer to us,” she said, citing Dubai as one place where Russians were flocking. “We can only be close with Europe because we are united by a culture that is similar or even the same.”

“就连阿拉伯世界也离我们近得多，”她指出，迪拜也是俄罗斯人趋之若鹜的地方之一。“我们真正亲近的只能是欧洲，因为毕竟我们有着相似甚至几乎相同的文化。”