The notion of face (mianzi, lian), has long been seen as an essential element of Chinese culture. As David Yao-fai Ho argued “It is virtually impossible to think of a face of [Chinese] social life to which the question of face is irrelevant. Much earlier Hu Hsien-Chin insisted that “The study of concept of ‘face’ in China reveals two sets of criteria by which prestige is gained and status secured or improved, and also how different attitudes can be reconciled within the framework of the same culture. Hwang Kuang-Kuo utilising social exchange theory claimed that proposed by him Face-Favour-Guanxi complex as a power game framework “depicts not only a prototype of social behaviour in Chinese society but also a general model for illustrating the process of social interactions in most cultures, especially that in a collectivist culture. Similarly, Stella Ting-Toomey identifi es face-giving, other directed-face and face-honouring as an important component of the collectivist cultures, that should be approached as a relational part of the face-negotiation model. Another interesting assertion has been made by Wenshan Jia for whom face and facework, is “a typical Chinese conflict-preventive mechanism and a primary means to cultivate harmonious human relations in Chinese social life.

Ancient peoples of China considered crimson, blue-green, yellow, white and back to be the five primary colours that gave rise to the universe and Earth. Then, according to the theory of Five Elements that make up the universe, i.e. Earth (

Lexicography is a branch of science that involves both the practice and the theory of building up dictionaries. Bilingual dictionaries play a signifi cant role in intercultural communication, foreign language acquisition and learning. Since the economic, cultural and strategic relations between Poland and China are strengthening, and Chinese Studies are becoming increasingly popular among Polish people, the issue of Chinese-Polish lexicography is becoming a matter of great importance. This paper aims at setting out problems connected with creating dictionaries in the aforementioned language pair. The author describes, analyses and evaluates both Chinese-Polish and Polish-Chinese dictionaries, which are available on the publishing market. The article attempts to answer the question whether the existing dictionaries meet the expectations of the users and what kind of information should be contained in a good dictionary. The research shows that there is still need for further development of Chinese-Polish lexicography, particularly with regard to those dedicated for the advanced Chinese language learners and translators. It also reveals the problem of semantic equivalence and its appropriateness in the dictionaries. 

In this paper, I describe some aspects of the process of inculturation of Christian theology to the Chinese mentality. In ancient China, there was no such thing as a person of God. The deity was Heaven (tian), which was also a basis of human beings’ morality. Also, the ideas of Dao, taken from Taoism, and Greek Logos, cannot be considered as equal, because there is no God in Taoism, and Logos in Western philosophy is a word of God. For Chinese people, the Bible’s stories were very violent, primitive and immoral. Also, translating theological terms into Chinese was diffi cult, because the Chinese language is monosyllabic, and each character contains its own meaning. In this paper I listed several examples of it. Some Chinese people used to understand Christianity through their understanding of Confucian philosophy. Missionaries’ efforts have deeply influenced the relations between China and Eastern Europe and also had a signifi cant meaning for the development of Chinese studies.

The United States of America is a melting pot of cultures. One of the biggest immigration groups in the USA are people of Chinese descent who, according to US Census data, make up more than 1% of the whole population of America. This article aims at investigating the tempestuous history of the Chinese immigration to the United States. A brief introduction touches upon the three waves of immigration of the Chinese. Each of those waves shaped a different, although culturally and sociologically significant migration profile. The article then leads to a detailed description of the first wave of immigration, since its beginning in 1848, up to 1882, when the US Congress passed the Chinese Exclusion Act, prohibiting the immigration of Chinese laborers to the USA. The first Chinese came to America looking for an easy way to enrich themselves, after gold had been discovered in California. For less than a half a century, the influx of Chinese immigrants had not been disturbed by the American law, but the situation changed in 1882. The migration policy in the United States played an important role in shaping the immigration flow of Chinese people, and it left deep scars on the Chinese diaspora in the USA.

This publication is the second part of the article entitled “The success of Polish stage director Krystian Lupa’s performances Persona. Marylin and Woodcutters in mainland China”. The second part is an in-depth research of Chinese spectators’ reaction and official reviews. In this part, the writer scrutinises the background of Polish director Krystian Lupa’s performances played in China, namely: the purpose of invitation, accessible knowledge about Kristin Lupa in China, Chinese spectators’ spontaneous reactions (recorded by local TV and noted on unofficial sites), theatrical environment backstage commentaries and official press reviews. Seeking for appropriate data is one of the most difficult issues that the writer had to deal with. A major part of the content was available only via Internet, the ephemeral nature of which was another difficulty in conducting the study. All the content was previously translated into Polish. As the translation was a part of the writer’s examination, it also required valuable input. Through the thesis, the author seeks for the component of the plays that the Chinese press reviewers pinpointed as the most signifi cant, as well as provides a detailed analysis of the differences between interpretations among Polish and Chinese audiences and links them to a particular sensitivity of these two cultures. At the same time, the thesis shows how interdisciplinary theatre can conquer culture confl icts and how meaningful are similar historical experiences.

The paper tackles basic information on the Copyright Law in the People’s Republic of China. The discussed theme is particularly interesting because the concept of the protection of the rights of an individual remained for many years contradictory to the concept of common good rooted in the tradition of the Central State. However, since 1979, the Chinese legislature has taken a number of measures to adjust its national copyright regulations to international standards. The reached legislative solutions fully correspond to principles stipulated mainly in documents such as the Bern Convention and the TRIPS Agreement. Thus, it can now be said with full confidence that from the strictly legislative point of view, the copyright system binding in the People’s Republic of China meets the global standards. 

After the incidents in 2014, sanctions proved to be an important impulse to cool the relations between Russia and the West. This paper relates to new perspectives in economic relations between Russia and China. The following were explained: the dynamics of trade in raw materials and non-energy products as well as actions taken by the Russian and Chinese authorities to improve the processes taking place in cooperation between these two countries in the years 2016 and 2017.

The main topic of this article is to examine Chinese urban legends – a field that is left unexplored in the European science. The author chooses to narrow the field of study only to ghost tales of Taiwan and Hong Kong, because of the limitation of space. There are two main categories of ghost legends: folklore about means of transportation (starting from car folklore and the famous The Vanishing Hitchhiker trope, but also the tales of haunted metro stations), and stories about the girl in red. Each category is represented by various tales and its many variations, as urban legends are rarely told the same way twice. In the article, the author proceeds to prove that urban legends are closely related to earlier Chinese folktales, especially the character in red. There are also many motives that seem to be common for the whole Asian culture, which tends to also have the custom of Ghost Month in common, which does not seem to be a coincidence in this case. The article closes on the note that seemingly popular Chinese ghost legends are perhaps an expression of nostalgia, or even suggest some sort of preserved continuity in Chinese folklore and traditional beliefs.

This article presents the latest findings from research on Maurice Benyovszky’s travel through the Bering Sea and the North Pacific Ocean in 1771, with special focus on the implications for the findings carried by the 2011 discovery of Benyovszky’s original map found at the Library of the Institute of Geography of Polish Academy of Sciences in Warsaw. This is the map that he handed over to duc d’Aiguillon, French Minister of Foreign Affairs, after his escape from exile and return to Europe. The time and circumstances of this discovery in the Warsaw collection of the Institute remain unknown. A widespread interest in Benyovszky’s navigation through the Pacific Ocean was first aroused in academic circles in Europe at the turn of the 19th and 20th century, after the 1893 publication of English translation of his Memoirs and Travels, edited by Samuel Pasfield Oliver. The academic dispute that erupted lasted several years and involved many of the contemporary maritime historians and experts familiar with Benyovszky’s life, among them: Prosper Cultru, James Wheeler Davidson, Benedykt Dybowski, János Jankó, Lajos Lewis Kropf, Ignacy Radliński, George Staunton, Lajos Thalloczy and others. Attempts of objective study of Benyovszky’s contribution to maritime exploration resumed in the early 21st century and involved an array of maritime historians from Europe, Asia and America, including the author of this article. The article attempts to summarise the findings from research on Benyovszky’s biography and the implications of those findings for the attitude towards Benyovszky that has prevailed in the world over the last decades, viewing him as an – accidental, but still – explorer, who made it into maritime and exploration history.

The phenomenon of nihon ningyō, or the Japanese doll, is not well known in Poland, nor is it substantively elaborated. The specificity of dolls as very personal, magical or ritual objects gives them an important role in the lives of the Japanese. Particularly important are the girls’ sets of hina dolls, which are presented once a year on the occasion of the hina matsuri festival that takes place on the third day of March. This custom became an inspiration for the American-Japanese cultural exchange, as a result of which in 1927 over 12,000 American dolls called the ‘Friendship Dolls’ were sent to Japan as a gift from the heart for Japanese children and a message of goodwill. This operation was a response to the tightening of US migration laws and anti-Japanese sentiments in the United States. Thanks to the nationwide information campaign and the involvement of thousands of American pupils, the campaign also became an opportunity to learn about Japanese culture and customs. In thanks for the gift, the Japanese sent to the States a set of 58 dolls representing all the prefectures of the country, the largest cities and Japan itself. The history of the exchange and the further history of the individual dolls have become the subject of scientific research and collector’s search for the dolls that have survived to this day.

Theoretical issues originating from the sphere of constitutional administrative law are relatively rarely presented in studies with the use of comparative tools. One of the reasons for such a state of affairs is probably the mutual nonuniformity of system solutions, pertaining to models adopted with regard to the organisation of local government by particular states around the world. Limitation of workshop possibilities of a researcher-comparatist in this respect only to functional comparative law tools (institutional comparative law seems to be unsuitable in this case) results in the fact that studies devoted to the comparison of local government models of neighbouring states are few and far between, not to mention comparisons of states originating from completely different legal cultures. The comparison of local government systems of Poland and Japan, made in spite of the aforementioned trend, with particular focus on elements of the civil society present in both countries – albeit in a different manner – constitutes a platform for observations on the present reality, as well as a source of surprising inspirations for the development of the idea of local government in Poland.

The goal of this article is to present the events of the night of 11–12 October 1942, when the Imperial Japanese Navy and the US Navy battleships clashed near the island of Guadalcanal. The battle, which took place in the waters around Solomon Islands, was inseparably linked with the fierce Guadalcanal Campaign fought in 1942–1943. The first part of the article describes the units involved on each side of the conflict as well as the sides’ theoretical strategic goals in the region. The second part discusses the course of the battle in which the Americans, during the night artillery combat, demonstrated their advantage for the first time. The third part of the text presents the outcome, indicates the mistakes made and enumerates the losses sustained by each side, including those to the vessels and the crews.

While international marriages (kokusai kekkon) remain relatively rare in Japan, they have already eroded the notion of Japan as a mono-ethnic and mono-cultural society, and will continue to do so in the future.

In the first part of the article, the author attempts to the understand interpersonal relation in South Korea. This chapter analyses the complexity of the interpersonal relation in Korea. The second chapter is about research types of Korean honorification. Korean honorification is divided into three (subject-honorific speech, object-honorific speech, hearer-honorific speech). In terms of Sociolinguistics, the article finds a way to understand honorification in the category of the Polish culture.

• Opening and activities of the Center of Chinese Language and Culture at the University of Silesia, University of Silesia, January 12, 2018 (Agnieszka Tambor)  209
• Third Edition of Symbiosis Law School, Pune – International Criminal Trial Advocacy Competition, 23–25 March 2018 (Dawid Marko)  212
• Scientifi c conference Kung fu/wushu – tradition, science, sport, upbringing, Confucius Institute at the University of Gdańsk, Gdańsk, April 12, 2018 (Wojciech Bizon, Krzysztof Brzozowski, Ewa Ciembroniewicz, Dariusz Muraszko, Piotr Rekowski, Michał Samcik, Wu Lan, Piotr Ziemba)   215
• Activities of the Center for East Asian Studies, University of Gdańsk in 2017 (Kamil Zeidler) 220